In my last post I explored the phrase “change is a good thing”. In this post, I examine the phrase “resistance to change”.

What people intend to communicate

If we assume the best intent of this phrase, people just want a change to go well and for everyone to successfully adopt the new way of being. We want to help people quickly move past any discomfort or reservations they have about a change.

What people may unintentionally communicate

Unfortunately, at least in my experience, “resistance to change” comes with a lot of potential baggage and negative undertones. This isn’t to say that people never resist change just that I think we label people as resistant far too quickly and mean it in a negative/judgmental way.

I think we label people as resistant to change far too quickly and mean it in a negative/judgmental way.

We choose to say someone who asks probing questions, provides an alternate perspective, or doesn’t automatically jump on board in favor of the change is resisting instead of choosing to frame their behavior in a different way. Perhaps, for example, these actions are actually a sign that they are a team player, are deeply invested in the success the business, and care about the people on the team.

The word resistance comes with negative connotations, an implication that resisting is a bad thing. By extension, it’s easy to label the person resisting change as negative, being difficult, not a team player, etc. We often fail to remember that resistance is a natural part of the grief and change processes.

We often fail to remember that resistance is a natural part of the grief and change processes.

We also forget that what we may see as resistance may be someone’s reaction to just hearing about/being told about the change instead of being included in the planning and execution of the change. Many times, the person who labels others as resistant has known about the change for a while and has already worked through/processed the change for themselves.  They believe that everyone else should be where they are in the change process. William Bridges, in his 2009 book Managing Transitions, refers to this phenomenon as the Marathon Effect.

Closing thoughts

The lens we as change practitioners use to view a person who asks a lot of probing questions about a change and doesn’t immediately have a “rah-rah, I’m all in” attitude about the change makes all the difference in what actions we take.

If we see them as resistant and we see resistance as negative, we will try to manage their concerns, mitigate their resistance, and quickly move them to acceptance. We assume that we need to take action to get them to stop resisting or move past their resistance quickly.

If we see them as a whole human being with a full range of thoughts and feelings (including ones that aren’t positive towards the change), we will realize that we don’t need to do anything to another human being (mitigate, manage, move them) to get them to stop resisting. We can create an environment that’s supportive of wherever a person is at with a change and one that provides people resources to help them as they navigate through their thoughts and feelings about a given change.

Thank you for reading. Please post your thoughts and comments below about “resistance to change”. Until next time, take care and keep up the good work!

Mike