Organisational change has a structure. It is not a random field of events to be improvised through, and not a cascade of surprises to be managed as they arrive. The right shape for it is a double helix: two parallel strands, each carrying information the other does not, held together by the points where they connect.
William Bridges (1991) made this distinction precise by separating “change” (the external event) from “transition” (the internal psychological process by which people move from old to new). Both run at once. Both carry information the other does not. The work of leading change is holding both strands without collapsing one into the other.
What the two strands carry
A DNA helix has two running strands that spiral around each other without merging. Between them, crossing bridges mark the points where the two strands are in relationship.
In the framework of organisational change, these two strands have a name.
One strand carries what is moving toward the future state: the new process, the new system, the new capability being built. This is the strand that the change program tends to focus on - the deliverables, the milestones, the adoption metrics. The strand of what is being built.
The other strand carries what is moving away from the current state: the existing process that is being retired, the skill set that is becoming obsolete, the identity that people held in the old configuration. This strand receives far less attention in most programs, but it is structurally present throughout. It does not disappear because it is not discussed.
The helix runs both strands simultaneously, connected, held in tension by the bridges between them. The change that ignores one strand while building the other is working with half the architecture.
The bridges are not optional
Consider what holds the helix together. The outer strands spiral independently. They could, theoretically, run in parallel indefinitely without ever touching. They do not. At regular intervals, bridges connect them - crossing from one strand to the other, establishing the relationship that makes the structure coherent.
These bridges are the integration checkpoints. The moments in a change program where the two strands are brought into contact: where the technology team and the people team compare what each strand has built, where the adoption data and the delivery data are read together rather than in separate reports, where the emerging new capability is tested against the still-present old way of working.
Without the bridges, the strands are just two separate programs running in parallel. With the bridges, they are a helix - a coherent architecture in which each strand is informed by and connected to the other.
Multiple hands on the same structure
The helix is not held by one pair of hands. It is held by many, positioned at different points, working different sections of the same structure.
No single pair of hands holds the entire helix. This is not a limitation. It is an accurate description of what holding a complex change structure actually requires. The CTO’s hands are on a different section of the helix than the HR director’s hands. The front-line managers’ hands are at a different point than the executive sponsor’s hands. Each pair is working their section - holding the local part of the structure, managing the bridges in their vicinity.
The helix holds because all the hands are working on the same structure, not because any one person has their arms around the whole thing.
The change that ignores one strand while building the other is working with half the architecture. The bridges are not optional checkpoints. They are what makes the two strands a helix rather than two separate lines.
References: Bridges W, Managing Transitions, Addison-Wesley 1991.
Read next: The Club Pass Is a Contract - the exchange between two parties that creates a shared structure neither holds alone.