One of the most common questions people ask me about managing change is “how do you manage resistance?”

This is an interesting question, because it’s such a subjective issue and one person’s version of resistance can vary greatly from another person’s view of reasonable debate and conjecture.

The first thing I ask people to do is to quantify the resistance and outline what they have done to proactively manage it. What you often find, once you proceed further down this line of questioning is that you’re starting to unpick a cultural issue that was active before the change occurred but was further exacerbated by the intensity that the transition activities brought to the team or individual.

With this is mind, it is worthwhile having a set of defined steps to apply when planning for significant change and considering the resistance that you may encounter. The following ten steps are a good place to start for both your planning and implementation stages.

1.    Leverage your ground work

If things have been going well and you (the leader) have been on the scene for a while, hopefully you have some goodwill to leverage after the efforts you have made to understand and connect with your team and stakeholders. While we don’t always have this luxury, this supports the need to get on the ground and form strong relationships and build shared ownership in your organisation as soon as you are in a position of leadership. You never know when you will be asking your people to change in a way that potentially scares them, so wherever possible, see if you can’t be on the right terms with them before this happens.

2.    Understand your environment and the impacts of your changes

Needless to say, your environmental scan and impacts analysis at the front end of your change program should give you (the leader) and your change team a good understanding of the setting, the impacts and where you are most likely to encounter resistance. This will allow you to shape your communications, stage your planning and proactively reach out to reps from the impacted areas to gain their guidance and ongoing support as you put the change plan in motion.

3.    Be objective – don’t overcook it

It is critical to keep bias out of your assessment of resistance, which can be a tricky thing given there may be a personal history associated with the people resisting, which does not allow you as a leader to be objective. In this type of situation, I suggest involving a peer leader, team or a trusted adviser to gain a fresh view on the situation and what it really means. Doing this can also help demonstrate that you recognise that the issue needs some fresh thinking and that those resisting can benefit from the wider consideration discussion (where it’s polite to do so).

In my experience I have often found some resistance descriptions to be over-cooked in that they sound much worse than they really are. This may be due to long term differences or an inability to constructively connect with the issue. Again, this can be helped by obtaining a neutral view, but also through quantifying the concerns through things like risk analysis, benchmarking and mapping the concerned business processes (to keep it objective).

4.    Seek out resistance and embrace its energy

Resistance itself is a cause for disruption and this can actually be an asset for your change program. There is also merit in adopting the mantra of keeping your friends close and your prospective enemies closer to understand your risks better. So, why not use your reach, your communications and your team discussions to hone in on resistance (current or expected) and latch on to it early. It’s important to note that when you find it, don’t try and crush it, but rather, show that you want to understand and work with those involved. There is also huge benefits in empowering the loudest objectors to have a constructive voice in your program. If you can make it work to get them involved, they will amplify your reach and help create advocates in other areas of resistance. Granted, this is tricky business, but even if you empower the nay-sayers as your ‘devils advocate’ representative in the future, it does build their ownership and it helps you to bring your energy back to the core program.

The benefit of this proactive approach is that it shows; one that you care and; two that you are open to different perspectives, which is a critical part of maintaining the right team settings (see item 10).

5.    Admit mistakes if they occur

Taking the time to consider an issue and admitting mistakes, if they did occur, is priceless in terms of building trust and staying open to innovation. As a leader you must remain at the right level and provide every opportunity for your program to be led by the business so in the long term, the people of the business own the change. Showing you are human and that you can learn from them is a big step in maintaining this level.

6.    Intensify support

Where you can see that the resistance is being driven by some type of deficiency, you need to move quickly to intensify support for that area in a highly visible manner. Whether it be a lack of communication flow, a capability deficit, a process issue or a systems constraint, there is no better time to use your resources to support a better long term outcome. I would caution here that sometimes the solution will fall out of your scope as a change leader and you will need to call on your stakeholder partners to see you can broker a deal that is in everyone’s interests without stressing out your Project Manager (who must manage their scope appropriately).

7.    Move quickly and be decisive

The worst thing you can do around resistance is not pay attention to it, or let it run for an extended period. By letting it run on you are actually fueling the situation and empowering other areas to take up a similar issue or behaviour. So, the idea is to move quickly, strategize, negotiate, support, communicate and move forward. There will certainly be situations where you can’t keep everyone happy and the important thing here is to avoid trying to keep compromising on all sides. As leader you will gain respect from doing four things:

• Listen and understand;
• Investigate options collaboratively;
• Make a clear decision and make sure everyone knows what it means;
• Move forward without giving it further oxygen.

The final step is critical as it shows strong leadership to back yourself, while demonstrating that a good mix of inputs have been used to make your decision.

8.    Empower your leaders to act

Your leaders, at all levels, need to understand how they can act quickly to manage resistance. First and foremost, they need the information and capability to address the issue as they see it, while aligning to your shared vision.

This means you need to test your communications often, discuss issues with your leaders and let them drive the steps to manage any expected resistance. I recommend enhancing your leader’s capability around leading change through targeted training and getting regular feedback on their level of comfort in managing their local change issues. You may need to provide strategic guidance later, but by empowering the local leaders to act in the first instance you can speed up reactions and help cement a productive working relationship (in that area) for the future.

9.    Communicate around issues, share and celebrate solutions

Communications throughout this process is pivotal as it helps you stay ahead of the rumour mill. Remember that people will fill gaps with their own version of the truth and this means that you lose your chance to connect people with the truth, or, you just have to work a lot harder at it. By maintaining open in your communications style, using a wide mix of channels and communicating frequently, you can keep your people up to speed with progress, issues, analysis and agreed solutions.

I would recommend maintaining a direct channel (with the local leader) to the people or team where the resistance was an issue to demonstrate ongoing understanding of their needs, to keep them involved (ownership) and to ensure the program does not encounter a future avoidable issue.

10. Maintain the right team settings

The final tip is to ensure that during your change program you pay particular attention to the team settings for your own immediate circle and those of your team members.

A healthy team setting relies on a shared vision, participative safety, task orientation and strong support for innovation. These four elements can ensure the team are focused on the right thing, feel comfortable speaking up, have clear tasks to keep them moving forward and they know they can suggest a better way if they see one.

So, all told, there is a lot you can do before, during and after a significant organisational change to manage and minimise resistance.

If you would like to know more about this topic, or you have an issue that you would like to discuss, feel free to contact me on benjamins@stockwellbretton.com