Why understanding threshold psychology gives leaders a critical advantage during transitions, restructuring, and uncertainty.

Perhaps your team is going through a major reorganization. Roles are shifting, remote work policies are changing, and everyone seems on edge. As a manager, you’ve probably noticed that people aren’t just stressed about the changes themselves, they’re struggling with the waiting, the uncertainty, and the feeling of being suspended between what was and what will be.

What you’re witnessing is liminal psychology in action. Understanding it could transform how you lead your team through change.

The Hidden Psychology of Transition

In liminal spaces, it feels like we’re on the threshold, in pause mode, neither where we were nor where we’re going. While originally studied in anthropological contexts, liminal psychology applies directly to workplace transitions.

When employees experience organizational change, their brains respond similarly to travelers stuck in an airport or commuters trapped in traffic. Time perception becomes distorted. Anxiety increases. Emotional vulnerability heightens. The familiar markers that usually help people navigate their work identity like job titles, team structures, or daily routines become temporarily unclear.

This isn’t a design flaw in human psychology. Liminal states have historically served important functions in human development and social bonding. The challenge for modern managers is learning to harness these psychological dynamics rather than fight them.

Why Change Initiatives Often Fail: The Liminal Trap

Many organizational change efforts focus on the destination, like the new structure, system, or strategy. These change management tactics ignore the psychological reality of the journey. During transitions, employees exist in a liminal state where:

▫️ Time feels distorted: Deadlines and timelines lose their normal psychological weight
▫️ Identity becomes unclear: People struggle to understand their role and value
▫️ Emotional regulation becomes difficult: Small issues trigger disproportionate responses
▫️ Cognitive flexibility increases: Paradoxically, this makes people both more creative and more anxious
▫️ Social hierarchies feel unstable: Normal reporting relationships and team dynamics shift

When managers don’t account for these psychological realities, they often interpret normal liminal responses (confusion, emotional reactions, resistance to timelines) as character flaws or lack of commitment.

The Liminal Leadership Framework: Four Strategies for Threshold Management

1. Create Temporal Anchors

Just as airports use departure boards and announcements to provide time structure, leaders need to create clear temporal landmarks during transitions.

Practical Applications:

▫️ Establish regular check-in rhythms (weekly team meetings, monthly progress updates)
▫️ Create artificial deadlines for intermediate steps, even when the final timeline is uncertain
▫️ Use countdown communications (“In two weeks, we’ll announce…” “Next month, you’ll receive…”)
▫️ Acknowledge when timelines are genuinely uncertain rather than pretending they’re fixed

2. Build Psychological Bridges

Liminal anxiety often stems from feeling disconnected from both the past and future. Smart leaders create bridges that honor what was while building toward what will be.

Practical Applications:

▫️ Conduct “transition rituals” that acknowledge what the team is leaving behind
▫️ Identify skills and relationships that will transfer to the new state
▫️ Share stories of successful transitions from company history
▫️ Create temporary teams or projects that blend old and new working relationships

3. Leverage Liminal Creativity

Research shows that cognitive flexibility increases during transitional states. Instead of viewing this as disruptive, savvy leaders harness it for innovation and problem-solving.

Practical Applications:

▫️ Schedule brainstorming sessions during transition periods
▫️ Ask for input on implementation challenges. People in liminal states often see problems others miss
▫️ Encourage experimentation with new processes before final decisions are made
▫️ Use the heightened emotional awareness to gather honest feedback about what’s working and what isn’t

4. Practice Communitas Building

Anthropologists found that people in liminal states often develop strong bonds, what Turner called “communitas.” This temporary solidarity can become a powerful tool for change management.

Practical Applications:

▫️ Create shared experiences that acknowledge everyone is “in this together”
▫️ Form transition teams that include people from different levels and departments
▫️ Encourage peer support and mentoring during uncertain periods
▫️ Celebrate small wins collectively rather than individually

The Digital Dimension: Managing Virtual Liminal Spaces

Remote and hybrid work has created new forms of workplace liminality. Video calls, digital collaboration tools, and asynchronous communication can all create threshold states where people feel neither fully present nor fully absent.

Key Considerations:

▫️ Zoom fatigue is partially a liminal phenomenon—being neither truly together nor truly separate
▫️ Digital body language becomes crucial when physical presence cues are reduced
▫️ Asynchronous communication can create temporal liminal states where people wait indefinitely for responses
▫️ Virtual onboarding requires extra attention to creating belonging and clarity

Recognizing When Liminal States Become Problematic

While temporary liminality can be productive, extended threshold states can become psychologically destructive. Watch for signs that your team needs more structure:

▫️ Persistent anxiety that doesn’t decrease as people get more information
▫️ Decision paralysis that extends beyond normal adjustment periods
▫️ Interpersonal conflicts that seem disproportionate to actual disagreements
▫️ Productivity drops that continue longer than expected
▫️ People expressing feeling “lost” or questioning their value to the organization

The Long Game: Building Liminal Resilience

The most effective leaders don’t just manage individual transitions, they help their teams develop resilience for ongoing change. This means:

▫️ Teaching people to recognize their own liminal responses
▫️ Creating organizational cultures that normalize uncertainty
▫️ Building change management skills as core competencies
▫️ Designing flexible systems that can accommodate ongoing transitions
▫️ Celebrating adaptation and learning, not just achieving predetermined outcomes

Embracing the Threshold

In our rapidly changing business environment, the ability to navigate liminal states isn’t just a nice-to-have leadership skill, it’s essential. Organizations that understand threshold psychology will consistently outperform those that view transitions as obstacles to endure rather than opportunities to leverage.

The goal isn’t to eliminate the discomfort of change. It’s to work with the psychology of transitions rather than against it. When you understand how minds work in threshold states, you can guide your team through uncertainty with greater skill, empathy, and effectiveness.

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