Change Resistance: The Secret to Winning Hearts & Minds for Success

Change can be a scary thing for many people. It is fear attached to change that is largely responsible for the disproportionately large amount of resistance experienced when people are asked to move from a point “A” to a point “B”. Let’s take the workplace as an example. It doesn’t matter whether the change being asked for is a new: role; employer; way of working; or new technology implementation; change is, more often than not, uncomfortable. In fact at times it can be quite scary for some. And where there is fear there is resistance.

I’ve been fortunate enough to work with organisations whose business is change, in particular working with Technology businesses, outsourcers, and the like. Largely these change and innovation driven businesses cite the same thing causing snarl ups in effective transition and transformation… the people experiencing it.

Often change in the workplace can feel like it is mandated from above. In the inner worlds of most people, it can feel like change is being put upon them externally. And, while mandated change may be necessary, or even desirable, for the people it affects, the level which it is adopted or resisted is largely a personal and internal one.

“For any change to be effective, and sustainable, it has to also come from the inside of each and every person.”

So, where does change resistance really come from?

To learn how to address a challenge it helps to understand its source. When it comes to people resisting change, it’s a matter of psychology. People are people first (employees second), and to engage people in change requires overcoming the psychology that typically flares up… notably fear responses.

It’s not the change in and of itself that people fear, and therefore resist… it is people’s negative perceived implications to them of that change. When people fear a potentially negative consequence of a change it is typically because they perceive it as a risk, or being potentially detrimental to them. As a result, they will resist it (no matter how willing they might publicly present themselves at the time). This is a subtle but important difference because much conventional change resistance thinking operates from the source being fear of the change. The real heart of the resistance is fear of the consequence, and mostly this can be pared back to fear of loss.

“People do not fear change. They fear negative consequences attached to it”

Overcoming Fear of Loss

People are loss averse. Studies (e.g Kahneman & Tversky 1979) have shown that people are significantly more loss averse than they are gain seeking, with it suggested that most people experience up to twice as much pain in a loss, than pleasure derived from an equivalent gain. That being the case, it’s no surprise that people fear negative consequences which can result in loss, more than embrace positive possibilities that can result in gain.

Take a moment and think about it. You are going through a major transformation or transition in your organisation. Let’s say a significant acquisition. And you have an employee, with a family, house, personal and professional aspirations, etc and then ask yourself, which is typically more powerful a behavioural driver to that person:

• The possibility of gaining new opportunities to be promoted, increase earnings, opening a new market?

Or

• The fear that they might be left behind. That they might not have the skills required in the new organisation to thrive, and so may be asked to reconsider their employment or face rejection (from their view of the world) via redundancy?

While we’d love to say the first one, the reality is that most often it is the second one.

The secret to addressing this

Include the person themselves.

While an organisation has needs, organisations only exist because of the people that comprise them. This is why any successful change programme should also acknowledge the people experiencing the change.

There is a dramatic shift when change is done with a person, rather than done to them. Also, action is one of the best antidotes to fear; therefore include the person in taking actions directly relevant to their fear.

So how do you achieve this?

1.      Build understanding ahead of commencing the change

2.      Enable intrinsic forward movement of the people throughout the change

1.    Build your understanding

How useful would it be to be able to learn what people in your organisation really have going on in relation to the change objective on the table? Would it help to know common themes regarding people’s internal blocks to their part in the goal? Wouldn’t it be great if you could quickly see the patterns of people’s inner states across your entire workforce?

(You can by the way, and talk to me if you’d like to know how)

2.    Enable intrinsic movement

Sustainably changing people’s perception, fears and behaviours is done over time. It takes application, consistency, and energy. It simply doesn’t happen in an instant. While organisations feel compelled (and at times almost apologetic) to do as much as possible for the workers to get them from point A to point B, this can be immensely draining and ultimately gets left by the wayside.

The trick is to enable people to apply their own energy in order to affect their own change. While organisations mix communication, benefits/rewards, etc there is still a gaping hole that is meant for the people themselves to self-manage their part in the change. How much benefit would it be if you could employ a tool and approach, quickly and easily to enable people to intrinsically do more of their part in the change?

(We have something that can do this too, incidentally)

Moving forward

Understanding the underlying source of resistance as mostly a form of loss aversion is a great next step to effective change. Accepting that what that looks like to each person can be wildly different, and being able to use that to inform your execution, will be even better. You will likely have many strategies, policies and tools at your disposal which will be made even more effective if you can apply them with greater context to the people themselves, using the mechanisms above. It’s a matter of timing and commitment to doing so (people smell inauthenticity a mile away).

Above all, being able to include people into owning and participating in their part of the change, while working to enable them to align their own self-interests, and allay their personal fear, will give you gold.