Ask a group of managers what they fear most about implementing a change program and they will probably respond with “resistance from employees”. It seems resistance is a big issue. For some reason we get it in our heads that resistance is a bad thing ... something to be avoided at all costs. “If you do it right they won’t resist” is what many managers are thinking.
Welcome to the real world
The reality is that resistance is a normal, and necessary, reaction to change. If we don’t resist it probably means we are being railroaded, feel indifferent or are confused by the change.
Denying people the chance to resist robs management of the opportunity to improve upon the proposed change. In their attempts to stop the change from happening, many people inadvertently come up with new, improved ways of achieving the same result. The real secret here is for managers to be willing to consider these proposals and admit, if necessary, that maybe their way isn’t the best way or only way to deal with the situation.
Steps on the path to change
Resistance is a step in the process of change, not a roadblock to achieving successful change. When undergoing change, we need to work our way through 4 stages.
Stage 1: What?
The change is announced and we immediately enter denial. “They’re going to do what?” is often the first phrase uttered by even the most flexible employee.
Stage 2: No!
Welcome to resistance. This stage manifests itself in many ways. Some people resist actively, others passively. Some people do it for an hour, a day or a year but we all do it!
Stage 3: Maybe...
Once we get to the stage of exploring the change we open up our minds to the possibilities and starting asking ourselves “maybe this could work”.
Stage 4: OK!
The ultimate goal of any change program . . . employees mastering the change. The new way has now become the only way. At this stage we often as “OK, what’s next?”
The journey of change
Ideally, management want to get from What? to OK! as quickly as possible. This desire for speedy change creates a phenomenon known as the “Tarzan Swing”. The idea is to get people to quickly swing through the messy, time consuming stages of the model (eg denial and resistance) and emerge at the other end ready to get on with the job. Sure, you can push people into the swing but watch out! They tend to swing right back to where they started, despite your best efforts to keep pushing them out again.
We avoid resistance because it makes us feel uncomfortable. Its almost as though resistance is a sign that the proposed change is faulty and doomed to failure when really it is just people going through the necessary process of, well, processing the idea.
How management react
Too often the management reaction to resistance by employees is to gloss over their concerns, acting as though they are one off cases or comments by people who “don’t know what they are talking about”. In the worst cases, the managers themselves agree with the employees but don’t want to appear to side with them in case it jeopardises their position. The result is people resist louder and for longer because they don’t like being told they are wrong. Many will stand their ground on principle.
People cope with change in their own way, at their own pace. Forcing the issue only prolongs the process. Besides, who wants employees who are robots, blindly following along, never questioning anything. Most managers agree that they want people who can think for themselves, solve problems and be creative.
A new way of looking at resistance
What if, instead, we encouraged resistance. What if we put that negative energy to good use and asked employees to come up with reasons why it won’t work and ways to fix the faults. We might actually get productive, sustainable change instead of the half hearted “band aid” measures you see in many organisations.
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What It Takes To Engage The Generations At Work