34 PART I Knowing What to Do
You’ll notice that your resistance to the boss wasn’t due to some innate character flaw on your part; it was in reaction to his leadership.
This extreme, but all-too-real, example gets at the heart of why people might choose to resist you and the changes you propose. This form of lead- ership works against employee engagement. Support and resistance are two sides of a single coin. They go together.
Since most changes in organizations require the support of other peo- ple, you’ve got to know where support and resistance come from.
There is hope embedded in resistance, but to find it we must first under- stand what it is. Although the word is used freely when we speak of change, it is often used imprecisely and incorrectly.
These views work against our ability to build the support and commit- ment we need to accomplish any big change (or little change for that mat- ter). Attempts to try to overcome resistance usually just increase opposition. Newton could have been writing about resistance when he said that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. With a better under- standing of the nature of resistance, you will become more adept at recog- nizing it in all its many forms and learn how to anticipate and avoid it.
So, what is resistance? It is a force that slows or stops movement. It is a natural and expected part of change. Any system, whether the human body or an organization, resists any change that it believes will be harm- ful. If you have ever tried to lose weight, you will immediately recognize this dilemma. As you try to lose a few pounds, your metabolism slows to keep you from starving. Your body doesn’t know that you are acting on a New Year’s resolution. It is simply trying to slow you down so you can conserve energy. Research (but not personal experience) suggests that