Navigating Aging Transitions

Change management for the most complex change of all:the journey of becoming - or supporting - a senior

When life's most consequential change has no change management framework

For 40 years, I helped Fortune 500 companies navigate their most complex transformations. Then my mother fell—and I discovered that aging, the most profound transition families face, is managed with checklists and crisis responses instead of strategic frameworks.

I'm building the change management discipline aging deserves.

The Problem

We treat aging transitions like individual problems to solve rather than what they actually are: complex organizational change happening within family systems.

When a parent's health shifts, you're not just making a housing decision. You're managing:

  • Stakeholder alignment (siblings with different values and proximity)

  • Resource reallocation (financial, time, emotional)

  • Identity transformation (parent's sense of self, your role)

  • Process redesign (care coordination, decision-making)

  • Resistance to change (denial, fear, loss)

  • Ambiguity and uncertainty (no roadmap, evolving needs)

This is organizational change management. But families face it without frameworks, without language, and without a plan.

The Solution: Change Management for Complex Decisions

What if we applied the same strategic rigor to aging transitions that we use for enterprise transformation and facilitate the human experience of letting go, adapting, and finding a new "steady state." What if families had:

  • Decision architectures instead of checklists

  • Change management frameworks instead of crisis responses

  • Stakeholder alignment processes instead of conflict

  • Transition roadmaps instead of reactive scrambling

This is what I'm building at SilverBeacon.

Through research, writing, and frameworks, I'm developing the change management discipline for aging transitions—synthesizing organizational psychology, gerontology, systems thinking, and four decades of transformation experience.

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The 8 Domains of Aging Transitions

Every aging transition involves navigating complexity across eight interconnected domains:

  1. The Living Environment – Housing, safety, accessibility, meaning of home

  2. Health & Medical Wellbeing – Care coordination, medical decision-making, quality of life

  3. Caregiving & Support Systems – Family roles, professional care, sustainable support

  4. Financial & Legal Clarity – Resources, planning, protection, legacy

  5. Social, Emotional & Purposeful Living – Connection, identity, meaning, growth

  6. Decision-Making & Transition Planning – Frameworks, stakeholder alignment, change management

  7. Safety, Security, Rights & Advocacy – Protection, autonomy, dignity, empowerment

  8. Information, Technology & Digital Life – Access, literacy, innovation, connection

These aren't separate problems. They're dimensions of a single transformation.

Who This Is For

Adult children (45-65) navigating parents' aging or planning their own future

Professional advisors (fiduciaries, financial planners, elder law attorneys, care managers, accountants) seeking deeper frameworks for client work

Healthcare leaders designing better systems for aging populations

Researchers & academics interested in organizational change applied to aging

Anyone who believes aging transitions deserve the same strategic rigor we apply to business transformation