We’ve all been there. You’re trying to push through changes at your business, but there is that person constantly blocking you. Active sabotage or vocal dissent is much easier to spot than passive resistance though – sometimes people are merely disengaged and silent, refusing to get involved with the change. The latter can actually be more ominous and difficult to overcome.
Why fight it?
Whatever form it takes, there are many reasons why somebody might be resistant to change, and it’s important not to demonise them and instead to seek to understand why they are feeling this way. For example, perhaps they don’t have the information they need to be fully informed about the change – is your communications plan sufficient and are you offering enough support? Perhaps the organisation has handled change badly in the past, and people feel sceptical or disenchanted; the “here we go again” mentality? Perhaps there has simply been a lot of change in quick succession, and people are feeling overwhelmed or fatigued?
Once you have understood the reasons behind the resistance – and you can do this by seeking to understand the person and the organisation’s context – there are a number of steps you can take.
Celebrate the best of the past
Making a change can sometimes signal that the old ways were poor – when this is not always the case. Perhaps the old method/team/structure was good at the time, but is no longer the best fit for the future. To avoid people feeling like they are not respected or appreciated, ensure you honour the achievements of the past where appropriate and make it clear that employees’ skills and contributions have been valued and will continue to be important in the new scenario.
Give them a role in the change
If possible, make resistant employees feel part of the change, rather than its victims. If you can, provide them a role so that they feel they are moving with the tide and not against it – this role could be as simple as ‘change champion’ where you task them with explaining the change to others and reporting feedback to the project team, or asking them to chair a feedback workshop. Generally speaking, building in plenty of opportunities to give feedback will help people to feel heard and involved.
Create clear expectations to remove uncertainty
During change, people naturally feel destabilised. By giving them a clear roadmap and plan to reach the end goal, you’ll help to mitigate this feeling and give them some certainty. Be clear about the vision and end state, and exactly what you expect from them each step of the way, with transparent timelines.
Be realistic about what will be achieved and what will be tough
Try to avoid overselling the benefits of the change or minimising the hard parts. Acknowledging people’s feelings is more likely to help them feel supported. If you pretend everything will be perfect, it might come across as deluded or disingenuous, and will only widen the divide. If people feel that everyone else is swept up in only positive things, they might feel more excluded and left behind.
Avoid unnecessary change
You’re re-organising your team members, so this is a perfect time to make the move to hot desking too, right? Probably a bad idea… Whilst it may feel satisfying to make your entire wish-list of changes at once, making multiple changes simultaneously seriously risks overwhelming employees – especially if the changes don’t feel obviously connected. Don’t overburden people with new things, and try to emphasise what will not change, so that where possible things stay familiar.
Mix up your teaching methods
People learn in different ways. Make sure that you are providing a diverse mix of learning resources to help keep people informed and engaged. Not everybody likes reading an FAQ document – try a video or a podcast, or an interactive Q+A. Some people engage better 1-1, and some feel more comfortable in larger groups. Some feel comfortable engaging directly face to face, whilst others would rather absorb information slowly in private. Providing different sources of information and training ensures you cater for people’s different needs and preferences.
And if you want to be one step ahead…
Organisations tend to assume that they de-risk the situation by being as clandestine as possible and dropping all news at once in a big snap announcement. This is usually not the most effective way to manage change if you want your employees to respond well and helpfully. Understandably, if you are facing reputational or legal risk you should ensure the right advisors are involved from the very first conversations – get your legal and HR specialists involved. Assuming you are working with the right advisors, you should not rule out sharing parts of the changes with your organisation as options develop. The best approach for communicating is to do so as early and as openly as possible. Even if you can’t give full details, employees will appreciate feeling in the loop and that you trust them and value their opinions.
Sometimes, there is nothing you can do
Inevitably, sometimes a stakeholder simply will not be able to deal with the scale of the change, and they may leave. Hard as we try as change managers and leaders, there is only so much you can do, and every stakeholder will have a different and unique response. As long as you are making every effort to be thoughtful and bring people along the journey with you, you shouldn’t feel too disheartened.
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