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Issue #26: May 7, 2003
To our readers:
Assume you plan to introduce a change. It could be as critical as a new formula for determining sales commissions, or as simple as a new color of ink you will use to print an accounts receivable report. You have checked and rechecked justifications for the change and have taken all the steps you can to prepare people for the new formula or ink. Perhaps you think that if you have properly laid the groundwork, there will be no resistance. Chances are that is not true.
On the other hand, you might accept that resistance is inevitable and have braced yourself for it. You are now ready to combat that resistance and move your "audience" from resistance to acceptance as quickly as possible. There is only one thing wrong with this plan, and that is your readiness to "combat the resistance." Engaging in a battle to overcome resistance might be both unnecessary and self-defeating.
"The reality is that resistance is necessary," according to Karen Schmidt, a "workplace attitude
specialist" (www.letswork.com.au). "It is a normal human reaction to change.
If we don't resist it probably means we are being railroaded, feel indifferent
or are confused by the change." So resistance can educate you regarding how well your
target audience understands the change you are recommending. And further, "in their attempts
to stop the change from happening, many people inadvertently come up with new, improved ways of
achieving the same result," reported Schmidt (A Fresh Approach, March 2003).
Rather than combat resistance, you should embrace it as a tool for creating workable, practical, successful change in your business.
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Three Tips for Making Resistance to Change Your Business Tool
1. Suspend your Assumptions
As part of planning your change, you most likely anticipated every objection you could in order to deal with each one before implementing the change. Now it is time to forget your anticipated objections and listen as people share their objections without making assumptions about what those objections will be. It is too easy to listen without hearing what someone is actually saying because you are so sure you know what they will say. Listen with an open mind. Two things can happen: 1) you learn of a problem that you hadn't considered, and this gives you the opportunity to fix it, and 2) someone comes up with a "new, improved way of achieving the result" you were looking for. Both can lead you to your goal, which is to implement a change that is good for your organization.
2. Enlist the Resistant
Ask those with objections what they would do to make the plan work. Ask them how it can be improved upon. Let them meet their own objections for you.
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3. Adjust the Plan According to Suggestions
Wherever and whenever appropriate, use the suggestions of your objectors to
improve your plan. This is another two-for-one accomplishment:
1) you end up with a better plan, and 2) you have used the resistance to create a better
response to your desired change.
The resistance of your target audience offers you the opportunity to collaborate with them in
a highly effective way. What you give up in control you gain in teamwork, trust,
loyalty, and confidence in your leadership.
For a look at the other side of change, click here to read Five Tips for Taking Charge of Change.
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