Sustainability transitions present specificities that call for an adaptation of public policies. So far, little research has focused on adapting policy processes, despite their importance in shaping policy instruments. To fill this gap, we analyzed the elaboration of the French pesticide reduction plans, which aimed at a 50% reduction over 10 years, without succeeding. We used the management situation concept and the transitions of sociotechnical systems framework to understand what limited the State’s capacity to manage the creation of a transition plan. We show three sources of interdependent blockages: (i) Deficiencies in collective sensemaking processes; (ii) Non-systemic instruments definition approaches; (iii) Implementation based on delegations and fragmented action. We propose a framework for adapting policy processes to transitions characteristics and show its complementarity to Transition Management. We show that a pragmatist management approach allows to link transitions theories and operational action. We believe these results can provide inspiration for policy-makers.