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Resistance to Change Is a Fact of Life.

Written by: Roger Ingbretsen

Article Overview: It has been astutely noted that the difference between a recession and a depression is this: in a recession, your next door neighbor loses his job, in a depression, you lose your job. Impersonal change is an abstract concept. We can't be adequately prepared for the future until we realize that the changes impacting others will almost certainly affect us as well. This article provides information on resistance to change and how to do a better job of coping with change.

Resistance to Change Is a Fact of Life.

Individuals continually resist change. The causes for resistance are many. We often think tomorrow is going to look like today. In our work life, lack of management support or employee buy-in are two prime reasons sighted as the root cause of resisting organizational change. Lack of understanding the situation, implementation plans which miss their mark, bureaucracy and people not seeing a critical reason to change are others.

If the shocks of a new technology or rapidly evolving markets are driving the change, all of the above can and most likely will be a factor in resisting change. Shifting roles, confusion, uncertainty, lack of control, a personal sense of loss, the re-negotiation of power and the ambiguity and chaos brought on by the unknown are the constant companions of change. To most, change is neither sought after nor welcomed. It upsets what little balance you may have in your life.

In light of this, you fall back to the safety and protection of the status quo. Resistance takes on two forms, active and passive. Active resistance is easy to spot. It’s very vocal. Blaming, arguing, rationalizing and outright intimidation are common signs of active resistance. Passive or silent resistance to change are much harder to spot but can be just as detrimental to the change process. Passive resistance takes the form of ignoring or not participating in the change process. Procrastinating or taking forever to implement a change is another stall tactic. The worst tactic used is pretending to go along with the change but actually doing nothing to support it. But active or passive resistance to change is not done out of spite or malice, it’s simply your reaction to the unknown. You want to know what’s going to happen to me. Once that question is answered to your satisfaction, one of the greatest barriers to change is removed.


Two Types of Resistance To Change

ACTIVE PASSIVE
Arguing Ignoring
Ridiculing Non Participation
Blaming Procrastinating
Distorting Not Implementing
Tracking Mishandling
Sabotaging Withholding
Threatening Pretending
Intimidating Avoiding
Blocking
Rationalizing


To stay on the leading edge of change, requires the skills of mastering change. Thought determines action; correct thought determines correct action. It is important that our views about change and its implications are contemporary and sound. Let's look, then, at the realities of change.
It's been over 25 years since Alvin Toffler published Future Shock, a book based on the dread that most people felt about the future. When asked what big things he didn't anticipate, Toffler said that one central error of Future Shock is that it wasn't radical enough.

We tend to think that change, especially significant change, as something that happens to other people. We don't really think it will affect us until it actually does. In other words, we don't believe as the world changes it will change us.

It has been astutely noted that the difference between a recession and a depression is this: in a recession, your next door neighbor loses his job, in a depression, you lose your job. Impersonal change is an abstract concept. We can't be adequately prepared for the future until we realize that the changes impacting others will almost certainly affect us as well.

Managers often make the mistake of assuming that once a change is started, that employees will see that it is going to take place, and get on their side. This is rarely the case.
Because change causes fear, a sense of loss of the familiar, etc., it takes some time for employees to 1. Understand the meaning of the change and 2. Commit to the change in a meaningful way. It is important to understand that people tend to go through stages in their attempts to cope with change. Understanding that there are normal progressions to change, helps you the manager avoid under-managing change or over-reacting to resistance.

When making strategic changes, organizations need sensitivity to the psychological effects of change on people. They also need the people to see change not as a threat but rather as an opportunity for personal growth and a new beginning. Our world is constantly changing and yet change is perhaps the most problematic and misunderstood and resisted phenomenon in our personal and business lives. It is important to take charge of change rather than having it take charge of us!

T o better deal with change, think of the typical three stages of change we all experience in the change process:

Endings: This is characterized by a period of grieving or loss of how it was or the old way of doing things.

The Neutral Zone: This is where confusion and ambiguity is common. We are still trying to hold on to what was and figure out what will be. For most of us the Neutral Zone is the most anxious, perplexing and difficult of the three stages.

Beginnings: This is where we start to focus on the upside of change and begin to see the possibilities and a better future. It is here that we often experience exhilaration, a realization that we are highly adaptive individuals and that we can actually make changes.

The feelings are like those we have as we attempt a high dive. We don’t want to jump, but finally do, (Endings) only to find ourselves in mid air and not know what it will be like when we land. (Neutral Zone) When we finish the dive we begin to feel a sense of accomplishment. (Beginnings)

We should alter our image of change as a smooth flowing river and think of change more as a whitewater experience. Both can be navigated but whitewater takes more skill, intelligence, experience and determination.

Change is neither good nor bad, it just is. What is good or bad is how we react to and manage change.

Copyright Information:

You MAY reprint the information contained in this article as long as no portion of the contents are modified and it used “exclusively” within your organization. You must also give credit to information by including the tag line...Roger M. Ingbretsen, Author, Speaker, Leadership Coach, Organizational and Career Developer.

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Article Tags: ambiguity, bureaucracy, companions, critical reason, implementation plans, intimidation, malice, management support, negotiation, new technology, organizational change, passive resistance, personal sense, prime reasons, procrastinating, resisting change, root cause, sense of loss, shocks, stall tactic



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