July 7, 2025 • 9 mins
The CoLeague CEO Forum highlighted the emotional complexities of organizational farewells and transitions. Emotional connections often hinder timely separations, delaying necessary changes. Organizations must sometimes part with key figures or outdated practices to evolve, as seen in biotech and software companies. Successful transitions require acknowledging the emotional impact of farewells while strategically embracing new directions.
#organizationalchange, #farewells, #transitions, #emotionalimpact, #strategicgrowth, #biotech, #softwarecompanies
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Colig Experience, where we delve into bold insights, experimentation,
(00:09):
and groundbreaking leadership strategies.
In today's episode, we explore the emotional challenges of farewells in organizational
settings and their crucial role in driving growth and transformation.
We'll uncover stories of parting ways with people, dreams, and habits to embrace new
directions for success.
(00:30):
Let's dive in.
A few months ago, another cycle of our colleague's CEO forum came to an end.
Throughout the past year, we facilitated the monthly meetings of this wonderful group,
and now we're saying goodbye.
Naturally, in such an intimate and close-knit setting, emotional connections form over time
(00:53):
that make parting difficult, so the end of the program triggers all sorts of responses
to separation.
There are the deniers.
We're not really saying goodbye.
We can keep in touch through WhatsApp, and so on.
There are the extenders.
We can continue meeting once, uh, there are the cutters.
(01:16):
Alright, bye.
So-and-so left the group.
Farewells are part of our personal lives, but they're also part of the reality of organizational
life.
Sometimes an organization needs to know how to say goodbye to its dreams so that new dreams
can be woven.
Sometimes it needs to part with plans and aspirations so that new directions can be born.
(01:40):
And sometimes it needs to separate from old habits that may have worked in the past, but
it's time to say farewell to them.
There are farewells that play a formative role within the organizational framework.
For example, separations from people who were an important part of the organization, perhaps
those who founded it, and at some point they move on.
(02:03):
There are those whose departure marks the end of an era.
The farewell from the person becomes intertwined with the farewell from a period that was
and will not return.
We can't always see this connection when it's happening.
Sometimes we can only identify the link between saying goodbye to a particular person and
the end of a period in hindsight.
(02:25):
There are cases where the situation is reversed, the organization changes, it grows, changes
its face, its DNA, sometimes in a storm, and sometimes gradually and slowly.
And those who held significant roles in the organization in the previous era don't find
themselves in the new era.
(02:47):
This isn't a pleasant process.
Sometimes it's a bit cruel.
Usually it ends in separation.
It happens that the difficulty of personal farewell blocks the organizational farewell.
We worked with a biotech company that had grown from a small research team of 12 people
into a commercial operation with over 200 employees.
(03:10):
The founding scientist who had led the research division for eight years was brilliant at discovery
but struggled with the systematic processes needed for regulatory approval and commercial
scale manufacturing.
The company needed to transition to a completely different operational model to bring their
breakthrough therapy to market.
(03:30):
The founder kept trying to maintain the informal, exploration-based culture that had served them
well in early research phases.
But this approach was preventing the organization from developing the structured protocols required
for FDA approval.
The separation was painful for everyone involved, but it allowed the company to complete their
(03:51):
clinical trials and eventually bring their treatment to patients who desperately needed
it.
Sometimes, there's no choice, and for the organization to perform the transformation
it aspires to make, it must part with those who don't allow it to make the change.
These are usually key people who, for various reasons, don't connect with the change the
(04:12):
organization is striving for.
These same people struggle to say goodbye to the organization as they knew it, and because
of their role and position, the entire organization can't move forward.
From our experience, we can say two things about this.
It creates a lot of frustration and pain for both sides.
(04:35):
Almost always, it ends in a separation accompanied by the insight that it should have happened
much earlier.
Or as Etti Ankri sings, and Mother says that's how people are.
When it's hard for them to finish, they drag out the endings.
There are organizations that drag out the endings.
They're stuck in this kind of limbo for a very long time.
(04:58):
On one hand, a desire to part with the organization's past, and on the other hand, difficulty parting
with those who are stopping the change.
Let's set aside for a moment those situations where the difficulty in parting is specific
because of a manager who personally struggles to part with those who worked alongside them
for many years.
(05:20):
This happens too.
In parentheses, we'll say that we encounter far more managers who would prefer to postpone
and postpone, and then postpone again a decision to terminate when they know, with certainty,
this is the correct organizational decision, rather than those who have a quick trigger
finger.
(05:40):
This surprises us quite a bit.
That even among very experienced people, those who have been in the most senior positions
for quite some time, there's such difficulty in making correct decisions when it comes
to terminations.
We saw this clearly with a software company that had built its reputation on a specific
(06:02):
development methodology that worked well for their original product line.
When they decided to expand into enterprise solutions, they needed to adopt completely
different development practices, security protocols, and client management approaches.
The original development team leader, who had been with the company for over a decade
and was beloved by the team, simply couldn't adapt to the new requirements.
(06:27):
The CEO kept hoping the situation would resolve itself, creating project after project to
try to find a place where the old approach would work.
This went on for 18 months, while the company struggled to gain traction in the enterprise
market.
When they finally made the difficult decision to restructure the development leadership,
(06:47):
the transformation that followed was remarkable.
They secured three major enterprise contracts within six months.
In our opinion, in most cases, when an organization struggles to part with those who can't make
the change the organization is required to make, it's because there's internal ambivalence
toward the change, in the change the organization wants to make.
(07:11):
It's parting with its past.
In certain senses, it's parting with its identity.
This can evoke a wide range of emotions in employees.
It can arouse hope, but also great anxiety.
For people who have spent many years in the same organization, a significant change in
the organization's identity might undermine their personal identity.
(07:35):
Therefore, when talking about changes, even those that are very positive and carry good
news and hope, we need to remember those components of personal and organizational identity that
will be left behind.
We need to know how to say goodbye to them.
We need to respect the difficulty of leaving them behind and try to create a new identity.
(07:59):
This doesn't mean we should extend the farewell and the pain that accompanies it, but it does
mean it's important to invest time and thought in the meanings of the farewell and in shaping
the way it's right to carry it out.
Understanding this dynamic helps us guide organizations through these challenging transitions.
The key is recognizing that organizational change often requires both strategic thinking
(08:24):
and emotional intelligence.
When we honor the difficulty of what's being left behind while staying clear about the necessity
of moving forward, we create space for genuine transformation to occur.
And that's a wrap for today's podcast, where we explored the necessity of farewells and
(08:48):
organizational life, highlighting how strategic separations can lead to growth and transformation.
Don't forget to like, subscribe and share this episode with your friends and colleagues
so they can also stay updated on the latest news and gain powerful insights.
Stay tuned for more updates.
Welcome to the Colig Experience, where we delve into bold insights, experimentation,
(00:09):
and groundbreaking leadership strategies.
In today's episode, we explore the emotional challenges of farewells in organizational
settings and their crucial role in driving growth and transformation.
We'll uncover stories of parting ways with people, dreams, and habits to embrace new
directions for success.
(00:30):
Let's dive in.
A few months ago, another cycle of our colleague's CEO forum came to an end.
Throughout the past year, we facilitated the monthly meetings of this wonderful group,
and now we're saying goodbye.
Naturally, in such an intimate and close-knit setting, emotional connections form over time
(00:53):
that make parting difficult, so the end of the program triggers all sorts of responses
to separation.
There are the deniers.
We're not really saying goodbye.
We can keep in touch through WhatsApp, and so on.
There are the extenders.
We can continue meeting once, uh, there are the cutters.
(01:16):
Alright, bye.
So-and-so left the group.
Farewells are part of our personal lives, but they're also part of the reality of organizational
life.
Sometimes an organization needs to know how to say goodbye to its dreams so that new dreams
can be woven.
Sometimes it needs to part with plans and aspirations so that new directions can be born.
(01:40):
And sometimes it needs to separate from old habits that may have worked in the past, but
it's time to say farewell to them.
There are farewells that play a formative role within the organizational framework.
For example, separations from people who were an important part of the organization, perhaps
those who founded it, and at some point they move on.
(02:03):
There are those whose departure marks the end of an era.
The farewell from the person becomes intertwined with the farewell from a period that was
and will not return.
We can't always see this connection when it's happening.
Sometimes we can only identify the link between saying goodbye to a particular person and
the end of a period in hindsight.
(02:25):
There are cases where the situation is reversed, the organization changes, it grows, changes
its face, its DNA, sometimes in a storm, and sometimes gradually and slowly.
And those who held significant roles in the organization in the previous era don't find
themselves in the new era.
(02:47):
This isn't a pleasant process.
Sometimes it's a bit cruel.
Usually it ends in separation.
It happens that the difficulty of personal farewell blocks the organizational farewell.
We worked with a biotech company that had grown from a small research team of 12 people
into a commercial operation with over 200 employees.
(03:10):
The founding scientist who had led the research division for eight years was brilliant at discovery
but struggled with the systematic processes needed for regulatory approval and commercial
scale manufacturing.
The company needed to transition to a completely different operational model to bring their
breakthrough therapy to market.
(03:30):
The founder kept trying to maintain the informal, exploration-based culture that had served them
well in early research phases.
But this approach was preventing the organization from developing the structured protocols required
for FDA approval.
The separation was painful for everyone involved, but it allowed the company to complete their
(03:51):
clinical trials and eventually bring their treatment to patients who desperately needed
it.
Sometimes, there's no choice, and for the organization to perform the transformation
it aspires to make, it must part with those who don't allow it to make the change.
These are usually key people who, for various reasons, don't connect with the change the
(04:12):
organization is striving for.
These same people struggle to say goodbye to the organization as they knew it, and because
of their role and position, the entire organization can't move forward.
From our experience, we can say two things about this.
It creates a lot of frustration and pain for both sides.
(04:35):
Almost always, it ends in a separation accompanied by the insight that it should have happened
much earlier.
Or as Etti Ankri sings, and Mother says that's how people are.
When it's hard for them to finish, they drag out the endings.
There are organizations that drag out the endings.
They're stuck in this kind of limbo for a very long time.
(04:58):
On one hand, a desire to part with the organization's past, and on the other hand, difficulty parting
with those who are stopping the change.
Let's set aside for a moment those situations where the difficulty in parting is specific
because of a manager who personally struggles to part with those who worked alongside them
for many years.
(05:20):
This happens too.
In parentheses, we'll say that we encounter far more managers who would prefer to postpone
and postpone, and then postpone again a decision to terminate when they know, with certainty,
this is the correct organizational decision, rather than those who have a quick trigger
finger.
(05:40):
This surprises us quite a bit.
That even among very experienced people, those who have been in the most senior positions
for quite some time, there's such difficulty in making correct decisions when it comes
to terminations.
We saw this clearly with a software company that had built its reputation on a specific
(06:02):
development methodology that worked well for their original product line.
When they decided to expand into enterprise solutions, they needed to adopt completely
different development practices, security protocols, and client management approaches.
The original development team leader, who had been with the company for over a decade
and was beloved by the team, simply couldn't adapt to the new requirements.
(06:27):
The CEO kept hoping the situation would resolve itself, creating project after project to
try to find a place where the old approach would work.
This went on for 18 months, while the company struggled to gain traction in the enterprise
market.
When they finally made the difficult decision to restructure the development leadership,
(06:47):
the transformation that followed was remarkable.
They secured three major enterprise contracts within six months.
In our opinion, in most cases, when an organization struggles to part with those who can't make
the change the organization is required to make, it's because there's internal ambivalence
toward the change, in the change the organization wants to make.
(07:11):
It's parting with its past.
In certain senses, it's parting with its identity.
This can evoke a wide range of emotions in employees.
It can arouse hope, but also great anxiety.
For people who have spent many years in the same organization, a significant change in
the organization's identity might undermine their personal identity.
(07:35):
Therefore, when talking about changes, even those that are very positive and carry good
news and hope, we need to remember those components of personal and organizational identity that
will be left behind.
We need to know how to say goodbye to them.
We need to respect the difficulty of leaving them behind and try to create a new identity.
(07:59):
This doesn't mean we should extend the farewell and the pain that accompanies it, but it does
mean it's important to invest time and thought in the meanings of the farewell and in shaping
the way it's right to carry it out.
Understanding this dynamic helps us guide organizations through these challenging transitions.
The key is recognizing that organizational change often requires both strategic thinking
(08:24):
and emotional intelligence.
When we honor the difficulty of what's being left behind while staying clear about the necessity
of moving forward, we create space for genuine transformation to occur.
And that's a wrap for today's podcast, where we explored the necessity of farewells and
(08:48):
organizational life, highlighting how strategic separations can lead to growth and transformation.
Don't forget to like, subscribe and share this episode with your friends and colleagues
so they can also stay updated on the latest news and gain powerful insights.
Stay tuned for more updates.
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