14
Anticipating and Addressing Resistance
You’ve probably seen something like this before. Employees smile and nod politely as their manager describes changes that are planned. A few employees ask questions to be sure they’re clear on what’s happening. A few even volunteer to try things out. But later on, in private, these same employees joke disparagingly with their co-workers. “She’s crazy,” they’re overheard saying. “She won’t get far with this. You’ll see.”
Or, a training manager checks in with employees to see how a new process change is going for them. Her trainees assure her things are great; they just haven’t had time yet to try out the new procedures they were trained on. For now, they’re still doing things the old way. “I’ll do it soon,” each trainee assures her. “I promise.”
Or, a project leader expresses frustration to the rest of his team after a key stakeholder misses their third status-update meeting in a row. “It’s just plain old resistance. That’s inevitable,” he continues, as he tosses a stack of status reports onto the conference room table. “He’ll get on board. You’ll see. I mean, what choice does he have?”
You may have encountered similar examples of resistance to change initiatives happening in your organization. And when you saw it, perhaps you wondered, is it just plain old resistance or is it something deeper? Is resistance inevitable? What does it take to really get people on board? And does it matter if employees feel like they have a choice?
In this chapter, we’ll take a look at these questions. You’ll see that the project leader in our last example was partly right. It is just about inevitable that resistance will arise in some form or fashion with each change initiative you work on. But the project leader was partly wrong too. Resistance isn’t something you should just dismiss, assuming that people will eventually fall into line because they don’t have a choice. Instead, you’ll see that resistance is something you can anticipate, plan for, and sometimes avert. It’s something you should deal with, when it does emerge, honestly and straight-on. You’ll see that providing stakeholders with choices can help them “get on board.” And you’ll see that resistance is something you can harness and put to work to help your change initiative produce even better results than you might have otherwise achieved.
But first, let’s explore why resistance is so ubiquitous. Why do we encounter so much resistance when our organizations embark on change?
Reasons for Resistance
Resistance happens when employees don’t support the change that’s affecting them, so they act, intentionally or unintentionally, in ways that interfere with the initiative’s success. Sometimes the reasons for their opposition are obvious. Maybe your company faces job cutbacks during lean economic times. Why would someone want to get on board when their job might be eliminated? Maybe office space is being consolidated and reconfigured to help your organization save on real estate expenses. Who wants a smaller workspace and less privacy? Maybe a beloved co-worker is leaving and your organization has hired a replacement. Who wouldn’t miss being able to work with a good friend? It’s natural for people to feel disappointed by these kinds of changes, and it’s normal for them to want to hold back a bit.
But many times the reasons behind resistance are far less clear. Maybe antiquated software is being replaced. Who wouldn’t feel excited about that? But some employees still seem reluctant to give it a try. A cumbersome process is finally being streamlined. Who doesn’t love it when work becomes easier? Yet some employees are arguing for a return to the old procedure. The new office location is chock full of amenities. Who can’t wait to try out the new, gourmet cafeteria and on-site gym? But some employees are advocating for their department to remain behind at the old location. Why?
I’ve seen employees show real reluctance to get on board, despite the obvious benefits a change will bring, when they sense that something else is amiss. Here are some possibilities to consider.
• Fear of incompetence. They worry about how much they will need to learn, or relearn, as a result of what’s changing. They don’t want to feel incompetent. Sometimes a change causes employees to question if they have what it takes to succeed in the new environment.
• Workload. They’re concerned their work volume will increase substantially. They know that work will just be harder, at least initially, while they are learning how to perform the new behaviors that are expected. Or they recognize that they will just need to do more—perhaps indefinitely—given the way the new workflow has been designed. They sense that their free time will be diminished.
• Loss of status. They’re concerned they’ll lose competence or prestige because of a change in job responsibilities.
• Loss of friends. They’re upset about the loss of co-workers after layoffs or a restructuring.
• Change fatigue. They’re overwhelmed by change. I’ve seen this in an organization that was establishing a whole new executive team. Employees felt like they were reeling as they tried to understand and adjust to the succession of changes each new leader brought with them to the organization.
• Pride. They’ve created the way work is currently performed, they’re proud of it, and they don’t want to see what they’ve built eliminated.
• Preferred a different approach. Sometimes employees support the reason for the change, but believe that a different solution should have been selected. I’ve seen this happen when organizations implement new technology: Sure, everyone agrees the old software had to go. But why didn’t they pick the new vendor that I advocated for?
• Mixed signals. They don’t see their immediate manager, or other organizational leaders, supporting the change.
• Flavor of the week. They believe that leaders aren’t really committed to the change, because they’ve seen them introduce idea after idea, only to quickly abandon them. Employees sense that they can survive best if they just hunker down. They’ve outlasted changes like these in the past, and they can make it through this change too.
• Prior failures. The organization doesn’t have a good track record in implementing change. After participating in a succession of failed projects, employees don’t see why this one will be any different.
• Change for change’s sake. Employees don’t understand the reasons the change is necessary. They feel like things aren’t broken, so why fix them? They might believe that things really are OK, but that leaders are just trying to change things to make their mark.
• Confidence the change is wrong. They genuinely question how wise it is for their organization to proceed with the change, at least given how the change initiative is currently planned. Sometimes, employees honestly believe that the organization they love, and want to protect, is going down the wrong path. They feel like they have an obligation—maybe even a moral imperative—to prevent the change from succeeding.
How Resistance Is Expressed
In the best case, employees will tell you about their concerns. They’ll share with you what they sense is amiss. But with resistance, we typically see opposition expressed in a more oblique way. Resistance might occur in the form of employees establishing barriers, not following through, superficially complying, creating workarounds, avoiding, and disengaging. Let’s look at each before we discuss what to do about it.
Establishing barriers. Sometimes, stakeholders put up barriers to stop a project from proceeding, or at least to slow it down. I worked with an organization that was attempting to replace its temporary staffing firm with a new vendor. Stakeholders kept bringing up additional vendors they wanted the project team to check out. After each series of demos was completed, stakeholders would produce another list of temporary staffing firms they “just learned about” that needed to be investigated. This process went on for many years! When it became clear that each and every vendor had been considered, stakeholders presented a new list of requirements they needed each potential supplier to respond to. Stakeholders privately admitted they didn’t want the project to proceed and that their strategy was to ensure that it stalled.
Not following through. Sometimes, employees agree to do what’s needed but then fail to follow through. They claim they’re too busy at the moment, and promise they’ll get back on track soon. And soon never comes. Perhaps they’re overwhelmed with higher-priority work and can’t commit the time needed to complete the task. Or perhaps, intentionally or unintentionally, they’re focusing on lower-priority work instead of tasks related to the project that they had agreed to perform. Perhaps their supervisor has directed them not to complete the task. If the lack of follow-through is intentional, it may be a sign that either the employee or their supervisor is resisting.
Superficially complying. Resistance can appear in truly sneaky form. Employees may look like they have complied with the change, when they haven’t really changed things at all. I worked with an organization that wanted all employees to use a new, online decision support tool. The CEO actually tracked how many times per day his direct reports logged in to the new system. I checked in with one leader who seemed to be adjusting to the requirement better than most, because the logs showed he was accessing the tool far more frequently than his peers. I was surprised—and somewhat amused—to find that he had programmed a utility to open the new tool multiple times throughout the day, whether he was at his desk or not! He had found a way to comply with the “letter of the law”—he made sure the tool was opened multiple times each day—without actually engaging in the intended behavior!
Creating workarounds. Employees may come up with workarounds to avoid engaging in the new behavior. I’ve seen more than my share of “shadow systems” created after an organization implements new technology. Instead of using software the organization has just deployed, employees set up and maintain their own spreadsheets so they can keep doing things the old way. “Why does it matter if I use the new system,” they ask, “when I can still get you the information you need?”
Avoiding. Sometimes, people just don’t show up. You plan a meeting to gather a stakeholder’s requirements, and they accept the invite, but then cancel at the last minute. This happens again and again. “I’m just really busy!” they say with a smile and a sigh, as they apologize to you for the umpteenth time. Or they stop responding to emails or phone calls. When confronted, they promise they’ll get to it. “I’m just swamped,” they claim.
Disengaging. Other times stakeholders show up at meetings but refuse to participate. They come unprepared. They don’t contribute anything during discussions, or they passively agree to whatever is proposed. You try to gather information from them, but it feels like you’re pulling teeth. Sharon, the learning and organizational development leader you read about in the PCo business transformation case (see chapter 11), noticed signs of this. The company’s acting vice president of operations seemed disengaged throughout the entire executive team discussion. He contributed little to the discussion about changes that were planned for his own team. He readily agreed to actions the CEO proposed, but failed to share details about how he would implement those actions. The CEO seemed pleased, because she assumed his silence signaled his agreement. But Sharon sensed trouble. She recognized that the acting VP of operations’ disengagement during a meeting could morph into foot-dragging later on. Sometimes resistance is expressed through loud and strident protests. But often it’s expressed through disengagement. Don’t assume a person’s silence means that you have their support.
Resistance really can appear in many shapes and forms. So what do you do when you encounter it? There are three approaches I’ve seen work most effectively. You can plan to encounter resistance, and take steps to avert it. You can deal directly with resistance when it appears, and attempt to neutralize it. And you can use resistance that emerges to make your project even stronger. Because resistance is so ubiquitous, on most change initiatives you’ll probably need to do all three.
Plan for Resistance
You won’t be wrong if you assume that you’ll encounter resistance at some point during every change initiative. Someone is going to have concerns and question whether your project should go forward in the way you have planned. It’s possible many people will have their doubts.
Given that reality, one of the first steps you can take to prevent resistance from interfering with your change initiative is to anticipate that it will occur. Think through who is likely to resist and why. Plan actions you can take to cultivate their support, or at least moderate their opposition. And identify steps you will take if you see signs of resistance emerge anyway.
Identify Who Is Likely to Resist and Why
Start by thinking about potential sources of resistance. Who might resist the change and why?
If you’ve conducted a thorough stakeholder analysis (see chapter 9), you’ve already done a lot of the work here! You’ve already identified who will be affected by the change initiative and how. Hopefully you had conversations with these stakeholders and have a sense of what their concerns are. You’ve already begun to figure out who supports your change initiative, who opposes it, and who’s in between. You have a sense of the extent to which each stakeholder can influence the overall success of your change initiative. And you’ve been thinking through how much support you actually need from each stakeholder, given the level of sway they have over the project or over those who are affected by it. If you haven’t identified your stakeholders yet, or haven’t met with them to understand their concerns, do that now. Conduct your stakeholder analysis.
Then, reflect on the information you’ve gathered in your stakeholder analysis. Which stakeholders seem to oppose the change initiative and why? Who is on the fence and why are they reluctant to get on board? What are employees potentially losing because of this project? Take another look at the possible reasons listed for resistance that we discussed earlier in this chapter. Is it possible employees will lose their job? Will they lose the prestige associated with being your company’s “resident expert”? Are they going to have to take on more work? Did they advocate for a different solution than the one your organization ultimately chose to pursue? Are they just tired from all the change they’ve recently been through, not all of which has gone well? Is their manager ambivalent about the change? For each stakeholder or stakeholder group, try to anticipate what their core concerns might be that will prevent them from throwing their full weight behind your project.
Decide What Can Be Done to Prevent Resistance
It’s often said that the best thing you can do to prevent resistance is to manage your project correctly from the start! Think about actions you and the project team can take, when you’re just beginning to plan the change initiative, that address stakeholder concerns. Provide opportunities for stakeholders to participate in project planning and decisions. Which stakeholders should participate in the core project team (see chapter 6)? Who should serve on the transition-monitoring team (see chapter 7)? Which stakeholders should be on the red team (see chapter 8)? Make sure stakeholders are aware of what’s changing, why, and what it means for them. Plan frequent status-update meetings and provide plenty of opportunities for two-way communication. Prepare and deliver training that helps stakeholders build the knowledge, skills, and attitudes they’ll need to succeed in the new environment. Provide resources that adequately support employees as they’re building needed skills. Make sure leaders communicate and demonstrate their active support for the initiative. Do things right from the start and you’ll prevent the resistance that can be avoided.
Then, plan additional actions that focus on places where you expect resistance will emerge anyway. Think about those stakeholders who can significantly influence your project’s success who seem reluctant to get on board. What’s at the root of their opposition? What can your organization do, in advance, to address their concerns? And think about those who have somewhat less influence, but whose resistance might still affect your progress. What can be done, as you and your team plan project-related activities, to address their needs?
Often you can prevent resistance from taking root by providing resisters with opportunities to get involved, offering them options and choices, and finding ways to compensate employees, at least in part, for the losses they will experience as a result of the change.
Involve Resisters
People often resist change when they feel like something is being imposed on them from the outside. Can you find ways for them to get more involved so they feel like they are on the inside? If the person can significantly influence the success of your project, take a step back and consider if they should be included on the core project team. If you really need their active support, can you—and should you—add them to the team now? Can you put their critical eye to good use by asking them to join the red team? Can you involve them by asking them to review communications or training plans before they’re implemented? Can they help with testing, when the project reaches that stage?
Perhaps this is an employee with less official influence who you know just likes to be heard. Maybe they’re someone who typically has a lot to say during department meetings or who doesn’t hesitate to let everyone know what’s on their mind. While they may not hold a formal position of power, they may still be able to influence what their co-workers think, or at least what they hear. Can you satisfy their need to be heard by checking in with them periodically to provide updates and to listen to their ideas?
Provide Options to Comply
Employees sometimes resist when they feel “managed,” when they feel like they have lost control over how they do their work. Allow employees some choices that will help them feel like they have retained some sense of control. In one organization I worked with, employees felt lukewarm about being reassigned to jobs in a new call center the company was establishing. But their mood brightened when the company set up staggered work hours. Within certain parameters, employees were able to choose the work shift that suited them best. Having a choice about when they worked helped quell some employees’ concerns about how they worked. Think about the choices you can provide employees. Can they choose the date they’ll attend training? Provide input into how their new cubicle will be configured? Decide which project phase the change will go live for their team? When you offer choice, you can prevent resistance from emerging.
Reduce or Compensate for Losses
And finally, think about actions your organization can take that will, at least partially, restore what employees have lost because of the change, or that compensate employees in some way. I worked with an organization that was relocating to a new building to save on real estate expenses. At the new location, offices and cubicles were smaller, conference room space was reduced, and the employee break room was eliminated. When employees were informed about the move, they complained bitterly. They weren’t upset about the reduction in work space. The reasons for the move made sense to them. But they questioned why the company would eliminate the place where they stored lunches and snacks they brought from home. As soon as organizational leaders agreed to install a full-size refrigerator at the new location, complaining stopped. The company found a way to restore something important that employees feared they might lose. For the change initiatives you support, think about actions you can take to reduce the sting of loss. Perhaps your organization can offer more flexibility, different work hours, an extra vacation day after the project launches. From your conversations with stakeholders, find out what’s important to them, and see if it can be offered in some way—even if it means installing a refrigerator.
Let’s look at some additional situations that can arise during a change initiative and actions you can take to prevent resistance from emerging (Table 14-1).
Table 14-1. Sources of Resistance and Potential Actions
| Key Concern/Source of Resistance | Potential Actions to Prevent Resistance |
A department manager tells you he’s concerned about exposing his department to glitches that will inevitably emerge during a change project. He’s concerned project-related decisions haven’t been as well thought out as they should. You need his support for his employees to get on board. |
Let the manager know you’ll consult with him before key project decisions are made. Update your RACI matrix (see chapter 10) to show that this manager has been assigned consulting status. Invite the manager to participate in red team meetings (see chapter 8) to review—and potentially help improve—key project plans and decisions before they’re made. Offer choice. If the project is rolling out in phases, ask the manager if he’d prefer for his department to be included in one of the earlier waves of implementation. That way, he and his department can help shape how the project team addresses the issues that will inevitably emerge. Or does he prefer for his department to be included in one of the later implementation phases, when many of the issues have already been identified and fixed? Include in testing. If the change involves a new process or technology, ask the manager to assign some department members to join the testing team. Let him know his team can play a key role in helping to shake out glitches before the change goes live. |
A key stakeholder whose input you need tells you she doubts she’ll be able to meet on a regular basis. She’s busy. |
Meet one-on-one with the stakeholder to see if she has concerns, besides the needed time commitment, that prevent her from wanting to get involved. Ask the stakeholder if she can designate a deputy to represent her in project-related meetings. Let her know you’ll still need to circle back to her for some key decisions, but that otherwise she is authorizing the deputy to make them for her. Keep her updated on key decisions before they’re live, to ensure she agrees with the approach her deputy has advised. |
Employees are concerned that their manager doesn’t support the change. The employees say they want to engage in behaviors needed for the change, but fear negative repercussions from their manager. |
Meet one-on-one to hear the manager’s ideas and concerns, and implement their ideas when appropriate. Involve the manager in project planning, through participation in the core project team or red team, if appropriate. Include the manager in frequent status-update meetings that provide opportunities for two-way communication. Ask senior leaders or sponsors to intervene if needed to secure the manager’s support. Ask them to meet with the manager to ensure the manager understands the rationale for the change initiative and the impact on their area. Ask senior leaders to convey to the manager what the manager is expected to do to support the change. |
Employees are concerned about work volume. They fear work will take longer to complete, or that there will be extra work to perform during the transition, or perhaps even permanently. |
Plan for reduced productivity during the transition period, and temporarily adjust employee productivity targets and goals accordingly. Consider hiring temporary staff to ease demands. Acknowledge the extra demands placed on employees, and assure them, if you can, that it’s temporary. Let employees know their extra effort is appreciated; consider spot bonuses, additional vacation time, or other rewards/compensation as appropriate. |
Employees fear losing prestige. Their job responsibilities or job titles are changing in a way they believe will diminish the amount of respect they receive. |
Focus communications on helping employees understand the value their new roles provide to the organization and its overall goals. Ask the employees’ immediate manager to meet with each employee one-on-one to ensure employee concerns are heard. Identify actions that can help compensate employees for their sense of loss. Can work hours become more flexible? Can work-from-home opportunities expand? Can employees be assigned a “working title” that conveys a higher status than the official title assigned in the organization’s HR system? |
Stakeholders will experience real and tangible loss as a result of the initiative. The change initiative brings few benefits to them, even though it benefits the organization overall. |
Ask stakeholders what can be done—short of having the change initiative disappear—that will make things better for them. Identify actions that can help compensate employees for their sense of loss. Can work hours become more flexible? Can work-from-home opportunities expand? Can more social activities be planned? Can a new training program be implemented to help them develop additional job skills? Acknowledge—honestly—that they have experienced a loss. Ask for ideas about what can be done to make things better anyway. |
This list isn’t exhaustive and some of the ideas likely won’t be feasible for your organization. Your project leader will need authorization from the project sponsor or other senior leaders to implement some of these approaches. That’s OK. Just make sure that you, the project leader, and core project team are thinking through the various sources of resistance associated with your change initiative. Then identify actions that will work for your organization that can help prevent resistance from emerging.
Prepare a Formal Resistance Management Plan
As you analyze who might resist the change and why and identify actions you plan to take to address resistance, summarize these activities in a formal resistance management plan. The plan will help you monitor and track actions you’re taking to prevent resistance. And the plan will help you prepare, so you won’t need to react on the spot if and when resistance appears.
You can create your resistance management plan by preparing a simple spreadsheet. Table 14-2 is an example of the plan that Sharon, in the PCo business transformation case, began to prepare for her company.
Does something look familiar? You’re right! That’s because much of the information you need to include in your resistance management plan already exists in your stakeholder analysis. In fact, rather than creating a completely separate document, you might just add a few columns to your existing stakeholder analysis. That is, you can create one document that serves double duty as both your stakeholder analysis and resistance management plan.
Here’s what your resistance management plan should include. Fields of information you can gather from your stakeholder analysis feature asterisks:
Stakeholder or stakeholder group*: Who is affected by the change?
What will change*: What will the stakeholder do or experience that’s different after the change is introduced? How are they affected by what’s changing?
Level of impact*: To what extent will the change affect this stakeholder? Anticipate resistance from stakeholders whom the change will affect most, especially if that impact will be experienced as some form of loss. The loss may be tangible, such as the loss of time, or intangible, such as the loss of status or prestige.
Level of influence*: To what extent can the stakeholder influence whether the change is successfully adopted? Frontline supervisors may wield considerable influence, because they can instruct direct reports to attend to—or ignore—the change. Well-regarded subject matter experts whom co-workers turn to for “the real scoop” may have a more moderate, but still sizable, level of influence over their peers’ willingness to comply with project-related requests. You need the support of these, and other, high-influence stakeholders. Stay alert for signs that their support is wavering or that they’ve actively begun to resist. For example, in the resistance management plan that Sharon created for PCo, she indicated that the company’s acting vice president of operations could exert a high level of influence over the success of the transformation. After all, he led one of the areas where significant change was planned, and he could encourage his direct reports to get on board or not. Likewise, she identified PCo’s lab managers as high-influence stakeholders. These lab managers might cooperate and collaborate with the business managers the company planned to install. Or they might resist, and undermine the efforts PCo had planned for the R&D function.
Table 14-2. PCo Resistance Management Plan
Key concerns or source of resistance: Why might this stakeholder resist the change? What might they lose because of the change? What are they concerned about, or what else might be happening, that increases the chance they’ll resist the change? Hopefully you’ve gathered this information while conducting your stakeholder analysis. But continue to refine what you capture based on your conversations with stakeholders and members of the project team. Within a stakeholder group, individual concerns are likely to vary. For example, in the PCo case, Sharon understood that some lab managers would welcome the changes planned for their area, while others might view the change as a threat to their status, autonomy, and prestige. For the purposes of your plan, summarize the concerns you’ve heard, or that you sense or can anticipate.
Current commitment: To what extent does the stakeholder currently support the initiative? Are they hostile, openly opposing the change? Against the change, but not openly hostile? Neutral, neither supporting nor opposing the change? Generally supportive? An advocate? Expect resistance from stakeholders who are openly hostile to or against the change. For them, something is amiss. They might comply with project-related requests, or they might not. In the PCo resistance management plan, Sharon indicated that some of the company’s lab managers might be against the change planned for their area. Perhaps the lab managers would fall into line anyway, despite their objections to the change. Or they might not.
Ideal commitment: Given the extent to which the stakeholder can influence the initiative’s success, how much commitment do you need them to demonstrate? Can they exert a high level of influence, so you need them to support or actively advocate for the change? Or do they have less influence, so it’s OK if they’re merely neutral? When a stakeholder who should be supporting or actively advocating for a change demonstrates signs of resistance, you and your team need to act quickly to understand why their support is wavering and address whatever issue is preventing them from getting on board.
Planned action: What will you and your team do to secure the stakeholder’s support to reduce the likelihood that they will resist? What can you do to address, or at least partially mitigate, the reasons they might resist? And what will you do if the stakeholder starts to show signs of resistance anyway? Think about actions that can help the stakeholder feel involved, even if this means you’ll just meet with them once, one-on-one, to hear their ideas and concerns. Plan how you can increase the options and choices provided to the stakeholder, so they don’t feel like the change has been foisted upon them. And think about actions you can take to mitigate the tangible and intangible loss they may experience as a result of the change. Brainstorm possibilities with the core project team. Ask transition-monitoring-team members for their ideas. And don’t be afraid of asking stakeholders who might resist the change for their ideas too. Acknowledge that they may experience some loss because of the change, and ask, “What can make this better for you?”
After you’ve drafted your plan, take a step back and consider:
• Does the plan identify the high-influence, high-impact stakeholders who might resist the change, the reasons they might resist, and the actions the project team will take to build their support? Does the plan identify what you’ll do if these high-influence, high-impact stakeholders start to show signs of resisting?
• Are you providing stakeholders with appropriate opportunities to get involved, to share their ideas and ensure their concerns are heard? Are you providing options and choices? Have you found ways to help compensate stakeholders for the loss they will experience as a result of the change?
Review your draft resistance management plan with members of the core project team and key stakeholders. But make smart choices about who sees the details. Hopefully you’re sharing lots of project-related documents with stakeholders during your status-update meetings with them. You may be posting documents on a shared site that everyone in your organization has access to. I generally support making as much information as possible available for your stakeholders to see. It helps build trust. But it can be embarrassing for people to see that they or their co-workers have been labeled in project documents as a potential resister. Employees might even feel manipulated if they see in print the actions you have planned to address their concerns. If you’ve added columns that address resistance to your stakeholder analysis, consider if they should be removed from view on the documents you share more broadly. If you’ve created a separate resistance management plan document, make smart choices about whom you share the plan with.
Later in this chapter, we’ll explore actions that Sharon can include in PCo’s resistance management plan. But first, let’s look at some steps that Sharon—and you—can take to deal with resistance when it arises.
Deal With Resistance
Despite everything you have planned, resistance will emerge anyway. Its source and form may change as your project moves from initial planning through the various phases of implementation. But resistance will happen. Expect it.
So what do you do about it? What steps can you and your project team take to deal with resistance when it does appear?
Let’s start by reviewing what you shouldn’t do.
Don’t Ignore It
Just because you can expect resistance to occur, doesn’t mean you should dismiss it. The concerns employees are expressing may be valid, or they may not be. But they need to be heard and resolved or they’ll limit your project’s chances for success. Remember, people engage in resistance to slow down or prevent something from happening, and these efforts often work. Resistance usually won’t go away on its own, and it can affect the outcomes you’re working to achieve. Deal with it.
Don’t Punish Employees for Expressing Resistance
Don’t make dismissive comments like “You’re either on the bus or under the bus.” Don’t isolate employees or push them to the sidelines just because they’ve expressed concerns. Their feedback might be spot-on. Even if it’s not, punishing employees for resistance can just drive them into the shadows, where you won’t be able to see or address what they’re doing. Instead of penalizing employees for sharing concerns, seek out their feedback and thank them for sharing.
Don’t Get Defensive
Don’t personalize the feedback you’re hearing or the behavior you’re seeing. This isn’t about you or your capabilities as a change management leader. In every change initiative, some people will benefit more than others. In every project, some employees will encounter loss. And in every project, mistakes will be made, and people will have ideas about what should have been done to prevent them. Keep focused on helping your project succeed and on making this the best experience it can be, whatever the circumstances are, for the people affected by the change. Focus on them.
Address Resisters’ Concerns
What should you do when you see someone whose support you need engaging in resistance?
Most often, the best thing you can do is discuss it with that person. And usually, the best way to have that conversation is by meeting with them one-on-one.
You might even want to have two conversations with each person who is resisting—one conversation focused on hearing the stakeholder’s concerns, and a second, a few days later, focused on explaining what can or can’t be done to address the issues they’ve raised. That’s the approach that change communication experts Sally Blount and Shana Carroll (2017) recommend in their Harvard Business Review article “Overcome Resistance to Change With Two Conversations.” Inserting some space between listening to a stakeholder’s concerns and responding to them can really help turn around resistance. Stakeholders feel like you have taken the time to hear their concerns and ideas, and they appreciate that you haven’t jumped to conclusions or rushed a decision. They realize you are really contemplating what they’ve said, and they trust that you have checked in with others to see if accommodations are possible or desirable. Here’s how it works.
The First Conversation
In the first conversation, start by sharing what you’ve observed. Say things like:
• “I see you haven’t logged in to the new system yet.”
• “It was good seeing you at the last status-update meeting. You always have such good ideas, so I was surprised by how quiet your were.”
• “From what you said at the last status meeting, it looks like you have some concerns.”
Let the person know you want to hear their honest feedback about the change initiative. Ask for their help. Reassure them that there won’t be any negative repercussions for what they share. Say things like:
• “I need your feedback about what’s working and what isn’t. I won’t take anything you have to say personally.”
• “We’re all learning on this project, so what you have to share can really help us make things better.”
• “You’re really in the know about what goes on day-to-day. I’d love to hear what you’re seeing and experiencing.”
• “I can promise you no one will get into trouble for what you share.”
But don’t just stop there. Dig deeper. See if the person is willing to share what’s preventing them from getting on board. Ask questions like:
• “What obstacles are you running into on this project?”
• “What makes sense on this project? What doesn’t make enough sense?”
• “What are your concerns?”
• “When things go live, what will you lose?”
Let the person take their time as they share their thoughts about what’s happening. Don’t rush the conversation. Spend the majority of the time listening, rather than speaking. Acknowledge emotions the person is expressing, and don’t try to fix them. Say things like:
• “This sounds frustrating for you.”
• “I can see that you’re upset about that. It would make me upset too.”
Ask the person for ideas that will address their concerns. Let them know that you want to hear their ideas and that, with their permission, you will pass them along for consideration. Ask for feedback about options if they’re available. Ask questions like:
• “What can be done to make this better for you?”
• “What would you need to see to feel better about this?”
• “Would it be better for you if X occurred instead of Y?”
Finally, thank the person for sharing their concerns. Let them know you will contemplate what they’ve said and will discuss it with others before checking back with them.
Reflection
Review what you have heard with the project leader or core project team. Look back at your resistance management plan. Are there any ideas for preventing resistance that you considered but chose not to pursue? Are any of these options possible now? Can you get the person more involved in some way? Can you offer them some choices in how they will experience the change? Can you provide anything to address the sense of loss the person is experiencing? What can and can’t be done to address the person’s concerns? Once you’ve reflected on this, have a follow-up chat with the stakeholder.
The Second Conversation
In your second conversation, let the person who is resisting know that you’ve reflected on their ideas and reviewed them with others. Explain what can be different, based on what the person shared, or what can’t be handled differently and why.
If nothing can be done to address the person’s concerns, acknowledge that the change may be difficult for them. Explain why you need their support, and what you need them to do anyway. Sometimes, the best you can do, if the person simply can’t support the initiative, is to ask them not to interfere with it. If their input is needed, see if they can designate someone else to provide input for their area. If they’ve been a vocal critic in status-update meetings, provide them with updates one-on-one before each meeting, hear their feedback in private, and ask for their help by giving other people an opportunity to speak.
Thank the person again for their feedback. Assure them that you’re not questioning their intent. Let them know you believe they’re only expressing concerns because they care. And encourage them to speak with you again if they develop additional concerns. Let them know that you consider them to be an ally for the project—someone who is helping make the project and the organization better because of the insight they’re willing to share. Be clear you prefer for them to share that feedback with you—because you can actually act on it—instead of expressing it through other channels. And who knows? Knowing that they have your ear, over time the resister may even begin to advocate for the change.
Who should lead these one-on-one conversations? Often, the best person to speak with a stakeholder about their concerns is the stakeholder’s immediate supervisor or another manager in their reporting chain. Hopefully, the supervisor or manager is someone the employee trusts. In the best case, the employee believes that their supervisor cares about them and will weigh their interests along with the interests and needs of their overall department. And hopefully, the employee will respond appropriately to their supervisor or manager’s request to support the change initiative, or at least to not actively interfere with it. At some point, the employee will need to understand the behaviors they are expected to demonstrate related to the change, and what the consequences may be for not demonstrating those behaviors. And to be heard—to hold the appropriate weight—that message needs to come from someone the employee reports to.
Your change management role, as they relate to these discussions, may be to coach frontline supervisors and other leaders on how to conduct these two-part conversations. Prepare supervisors by reviewing the conversation format with them. Role-play the discussions with them to help them practice. Check in with supervisors after they’ve conducted the first conversation, to hear about the concerns and ideas the employee expressed. And discuss with the supervisor, project leader, and others what next steps might be appropriate to address these concerns. Check in with the supervisor after the second conversation occurs, and circle back to the project team to update plans as needed.
Some supervisors may be unable or unwilling to have these conversations. In that case, ask for their permission to meet with the employee who is resisting, and then meet with the supervisor to update them on what you have heard.
And depending on the stakeholder who is resisting the change, and their level of influence, sometimes the most appropriate person to lead the conversation will be the project leader or project sponsor. As resistance emerges, meet with your project leader to discuss who is best equipped to conduct these discussions. Consider whom the resister trusts and respects. Whom will they be willing to share concerns with? Whom will they listen to? Sometimes it will make sense for you to meet with the person demonstrating resistance. Often, it will make more sense for the project leader, project sponsor, or the stakeholder’s supervisor to take the lead. Help the person leading that conversation by coaching them on how to conduct a productive discussion.
Use Resistance to Make Your Project Stronger
When you deal with resistance, it might seem like you’re focusing 100 percent of your time on the soft side of change. After all, you’re trying to help people feel involved. You’re looking for ways to offer stakeholders choices so they don’t feel managed and controlled. You’re thinking of steps you can take to mitigate the sense of loss employees might be experiencing because of the change, whether that loss is emotional or more tangible in nature. That’s all soft-side stuff, right? But dealing with resistance helps you address the hard side of change too. After all, resistance happens when people do things—or don’t do things—to stop the change initiative from progressing, or at least to stop the change from progressing for them. When you deal with resistance, you’re taking steps to ensure the change moves forward anyway to produce its intended results. It’s just as important as any other action you take that more explicitly addresses the hard side of change. Don’t dismiss resistance. Anticipate and deal with it.
But there’s more. Some employees resist a change for reasons that have very little to do with their sense of personal loss. They see flaws in project plans that leaders and the core project team haven’t yet recognized. They have knowledge about customer needs and expectations that haven’t yet been adequately accounted for in the “to-be” state. They sense that the company has turned down a path that will take them far afield from the organization’s stated values. Sometimes employees resist out of a sense of loyalty and affection for the organization they love. They struggle as they try to figure out how to protect their company from making a mistake they perceive will be disastrous. And they know they are taking a risk by doing so.
What can you do to accurately recognize this form of resistance when it occurs? How can you tell when employee resistance is driven by their genuine desire to help the organization succeed? How can you know when employees oppose change because they fear for the loss their organization will suffer, not the loss they will suffer themselves?
The reality is, you can’t. And so the smartest thing you can do is to approach every situation in which resistance occurs with an assumption of positive intent. Assume the person opposing your project really is trying to help. Assume they see something or know something that you and your project team haven’t yet taken into account. Maybe you already know about the issues the resister has raised, and maybe you don’t, but be curious anyway. Recognize resistance as an opportunity to make your project even better. Mistakes do happen. Take advantage of the opportunity to hear the person out. Chances are you might learn something that, if acted upon, will make your project stronger.
Bake into your project plan opportunities to hear from resisters. Invite them to participate in red team meetings. Plan to have resisters join action review sessions (see chapter 16) so you can learn about the “ground truth” from their perspective. Schedule one-on-one meetings with resisters to find out more about what they’re seeing. You and your project team might agree with what they have to say, or you might not. But to dismiss them is to miss an opportunity to gather information that could be vital for the success of your project.
About to Begin?
Are you about to begin working on a change initiative in your organization? As you think about the resistance you may encounter, ask yourself:
• Who might struggle with what’s changing and why? What actions can we take to help them feel better about what’s changing?
• When resistance emerges, and it will, how will we deal with it?
• What opportunities do we have to use resistance to make our project even better? How can we make sure we’re seeking out and listening to those who have reservations about what’s changing, so we can make more informed decisions and increase the chances our project will succeed?
And still, mistakes will be made. They happen on every project. The core project team will make assumptions that turn out to be wrong. Training will be delivered that misses the mark. A key stakeholder will begin objecting vigorously, and you hadn’t accounted for their potential opposition in your resistance management plan. So what do you do?
In section 4, we’ll take a look at steps your organization can take to continually assess progress, so you can quickly take corrective action when it’s needed. And we’ll look at ideas for getting back on track if your change initiative goes off the rails. Despite the best-laid plans, stuff, or something like that, happens. But you can structure your change initiative so mistakes are discovered and addressed as early as possible. And even when mistakes aren’t readily addressed, there are actions you can take to recover. Let’s explore.
Learn more. Check out:
Airiodion Global Services. n.d. “Change Management Resistance Management Guide.” airiodion.com/resistance-management-plan.
Blount, S., and S. Carroll. 2017. “Overcome Resistance to Change With Two Conversations.” Harvard Business Review, May 16.