TRANSITION BLIZZARD LEADERSHIP
As global guests we are amid a global interference blizzard—psychological overload of our very fragile human condition—because of scores of deliberate, unmanaged changes and manufactured messages that manifest as a sense of lost identity, confusion, chaos, infinite searching and loneliness that camouflage fear, anger, depression and sadness. Some worldwide, current reality change symptoms are the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer; non-stop blaming, undermining, defending, accusing, distracting, taunting, attacking and discrediting; anxiety coupled with the absence of compassion and caring; post-truth; diversity is perceived as weakness; corruption, mass shootings, cheating and stealing; escalating stress and sexual, drug and alcohol abuse; deconstruction of government institutions; crumbling personal identities, ethics, morals, values and principles; daily, media are attacked and are host to drama and self-absorption, etc. Thich Nhat Hanh commented,
There is a deep malaise in society…We absorb so much violence and insecurity every day that we are like time bombs ready to explode. We need to find a cure for our illness…Many young people (and adult people) are uprooted…We need roots to be able to stand straight and grow strong. (Living Buddha, Living Christ, 87-89)
Too many changes are planned with little concern for how they will affect people or what people will have to do to make them work. The assumption is that the changes are necessary and that people will simply adjust to them. William Bridges suggests that the psychological processes that change initiates are more like distress and disruption than adjustment: many changes that are meant to strengthen actually weaken and cause resentment and confusion. Fortunately, there are techniques for leading and managing the fragile, human side of change and it is called transition management.
A change normally has an ending, a new beginning and a transition, the neutral zone and psychological reorientation people, cultures and institutions go through when moving from an old situation and coming to terms with the new situation. Transition can be led and managed by 1) identifying the transitions, 2) managing the endings, 3) deliberately leading the psychological adjustment process through the neutral zones and 4) orchestrating and supporting the new beginnings.
Some of the current literature can support identification of some of the multitude of changes and associated transitions—psychological interference blizzard—we humans are experiencing in a globe overwhelmed by cyber operations, information overload and post-truth messaging; political, institutional and humanitarian unrest; military evolution from beans, bombs and bullets to hybrid warfare; and cultural, economic and financial volatility.
Change and Transition Uncovering Resources
Bacevich, (2010). Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War [American Empire Project]. NY, NY: Macmillan.
Boot, M. (2018). The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I left the Right. Amazon Whispernet.
Browder, B. (2015). Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight. NY, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Carlson, T. (2018). Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution. NY, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Clapper, J.A. (2018). Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence. NY, NY: Penguin.
Clinton, H. (2014). Hard Choices. NY, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Clinton, H. (2017). What Happened. NY, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Cohen, A. (2002). Living Enlightenment: A Call for Evolution Beyond Ego. Lenox, MA: Moksha.
Comey, J. (2018). A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership. NY, NY: Macmillan.
Corn, D. & Isikoff, M. (2018). Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump. NY, NY: Hachette.
Corsi, J.R. (2018). Killing the Deep State: The Fight to Keep President Trump. Amazon Whispernet.
Daniels, S. (2018). Full Disclosure. NY, NY: Macmillan.
Dawisha, K. (2014). Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia. NY, NY: Random. House.
Dzuiban, P.F. (2017). Consciousness Is All: Now Life Is Completely New. Amazon Whispernet.
Dzuiban, P.F. (2013). Simply Notice: Clear Awareness Is the Key to Happiness, Love and Freedom. Amazon Whispernet.
Farrow, R. (2017). War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence. Amazon Whispernet.
Frum, D. (2014). Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic. NY, NY: Harper Collins.
Hall, K.A. (2014). Sovereign Duty. Kindle.
Hayden, M.V. (2018). The Assault on Intelligence: American National Security in the Age of Lies. NY, NY: Penguin.
Harding, L. (2017). Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win. NY, NY: Random House.
Heiser, J. (2014). The American Empire Should Be Destroyed: Aleksandr Dugin and the Perils of Immanentized Eschatology. Kindle Unlimited.
Howard, R. (2018). The Killing of Uncle Sam: The Demise of the United States of America. Amazon Whispernet.
Johnston, D.K. (2018). It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America. NY, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Kaplan, D.A. (2018). The Most Dangerous Branch: Inside the Supreme Court Assault on the Constitution. NY, NY: Random House.
Kasparov, G. (2015). Winter is Coming: Why Vladmir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped. NY, NY: Hachette.
Levin, M.R. (2009). Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto. NY, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Levitsky, S. & Ziblatt, D. (2018). How Democracies Die. NY, NY: Random.
MacLean, N. (2017). Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America. NY, NY: Penguin.
McCain, J. (2018). The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations. NY, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Murphy, M. & Leonard, G. (2005). The Life We Are Given: A Long-Term Program for Realizing the Potential of Body, Mind, Heart, and Soul. NY, NY: Penguin.
MacLean, M. (2017). Democracy In Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America. NY, NY: Penguin.
McFaul, M. (2018). From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia. NY, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Newman, O.M. (2018). Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House. NY, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Peterson, J. (2018). 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. NY, NY: Random House.
Nance, M. (2018). The Plot to Destroy Democracy: How Putin and His Spies are Undermining America and Dismantling the West. NY, NY: Hachette.
Pirro, J. (2018). Liars, Leakers, and Liberals: The Case Against the Trump Conspiracy. NY, NY: Hachette.
Ryan, A. (2018). Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the White House. Amazon Whispernet.
Sasse, B. (2018). Them: Why We Hate Each Other—and How to Heal. NY, NY: Macmillan.
Scaramucci, A. (2018). Trump, the Blue-Collar President. NY, NY: Hachette.
Singer, M. (2009). Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies. NY, NY: Macmillan.
Unger, C. (2018). House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia. NY, NY: Dutton.
Wilber K., Patten, T., Leonard, A. & Morelli, M. (2009). Integral Life Practice: A 21st Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening. Boston, MA: Integral.ma
Wilber, K. (2016). Integral Meditation: Mindfulness as a Way to Grow Up, Wake Up, and Show Up in Your Life. NY, NY: Penguin.
Wilber, K. (2000). Integral Psychology: Consciousness, Spirit, Psychology, Therapy. Boston, MA: Shambhala.
Wilber, K. (2001). A Brief History of Everything. NY, NY: Penguin-Random House.
Wilber, K. (2017). Trump and Post-Truth World. NY, NY: Random House.
Wilson, R. (2018). Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever. NY, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Wolff, M. (2018). Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. NY, NY: Macmillan.
Woodward, B. (2018). Fear: Trump in the White House. NY, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Zakaria, F. (2024). Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to Present, NY, NY: W.W. Norton.
Following transition and change identification, some possible next steps: manage those pesky endings; deliberate leadership through neutral zones; and planned orchestration and support for new beginnings. Celebration!
