Description
This assignment provides an opportunity to find evidence of one (or more) of Bridge’s claims about change in a Pop-Culture artifact. Find a song, a scene from a popular film, a TV commercial, Comic Strip, etc., that illustrates in some interesting and creative way the concepts we are reading and talking about. Bring the artifact to class along with a one-page description of the artifact and the principle it illustrates and an explanation of how the artifact confirms, disconfirms, or extends the principle. This assignment will be due during our last weekend meeting.
Managing transitions: making the most of change
Author: William Bridges; Susan Bridges
Publisher: London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2017. ©2017
Edition/Format: Print book: English: Fourth edition View all editions and formats
Summary:
The indispensable guide to dealing with the human side of organizational change, now updated to reflect the challenges of today's ever-changing, globally connected workplaces.
For example, one of my students at Fort Bragg, NC analyzed a song from Lonestar’s Lonely Grill album—“What About Now.” What follows is her response:
Life itself is constantly changing, which brings on a whole host of transitions. When I hear “What About Now,” I envision a couple who started out making a lot of big plans when they were first married. Possible due to children, money, health or some other reason those plans were put on hold and the “someday, somehow. . . gonna blow this town” never happened. Whatever the last change, this couple has been suddenly thrown back into the neutral zone. . . again.
The man in the song has the personality of Johnson’s Sniff and Scurry. But he is major neutral zoning—he is ready for anything just not sure what he wants to do and going in a thousand directions at once. He sniffs out this hot vehicle for only seven hundred dollars and scurries to make his new purchase. I can imagine, as he heads for home, he is excited and cannot wait to share his find (new cheese).
The woman (most likely his wife) is more of a Hem. She is not quite ready to make such a drastic change. You can tell by the way he says, “Baby for once let’s don’t think twice, Let’s take that spin. . . That we’ve been talking about.” Toward the end of the song, he repeats the same line, with the music more muted. It is almost as if this is the defining point—will she say yes or no. Unfortunately, the song does not give us a clue.
My hope is that they decided to “run away” for a while. I imagine if you drive by their house in a couple of weeks you will se a “for sale” sign on that “dinosaur Detroit made” as they move toward their new beginning.
Of course, a number of other songs have been analyzed for their reference to communication and change (Revolution, It’s so hard to say goodbye to yesterday, Mountain High, Valley Low, and many many more). Other students have made use of video clips (Face-Off, Gilligan’s Island, Return to me, Roger and me) and poetry (Prayer of Hope), prose, and comic strips. It’s hard to go wrong with this one.
So, find an artifact and analyze it for it’s value to our understanding of how change is articulated in popular culture.