The truth about why people naturally resist change: hint - they don’t

Following our #ManagingChange webinar, Paul Daly, Project Manager for Workforce Inclusion, Leadership and Development at Skills for Care, shares his insights on how to engage teams in change.

Stop thinking that people naturally resist change. They don’t!

Over the years, a common question that I’ve been asked by middle and senior level leaders is how to handle resistance to change. Many times, as these leaders raise the question, they’ll also repeat a common false belief about change – the idea that people naturally resist change.

The truth is that human beings don’t naturally resist change. We accept changes to our lives all the time, especially when we like the change that others present to us. We will change if we believe the change will be beneficial to us.

But the challenge in introducing change is that just because you believe (and may even know) that a change will be beneficial for someone else, this doesn’t mean that the other party shares your perspective. He or she may see the change that you want to make as being far from beneficial to them.

Leading change

As a leader in your organisation, you’re going to face instances where others resist your efforts to make change; don’t take it personally, it’s one of the many organisational realities that come with being in leadership.

As you encounter resistance, it’s important to understand the complexity of change, otherwise, you won’t be able to help move people from resisting you to supporting you.

Accept that their resistance to change comes because they see some aspect of what you want to do as not being in their best interests. While they could be mistaken in this belief, accept that their resistance to what you want to do makes perfect sense to them.

To counter their belief that the change you want to make is not in their best interest, you can assess the common reasons why people resist change and then respond appropriately.

These include:

• concern over loss of status or job security in the organisation
• non-reinforcing reward systems
• surprise and fear of the unknown
• peer pressure
• climate of mistrust
• organisational politics
• fear of failure
• lack of tact or poor timing.

Change theories

When it comes to understanding reasons for resistance and managing change there are a few tried and tested theories which can help.

One of these is The Change Equation which serves as a simplified way of analysing the potential success or failure of a change initiative. It effectively describes the situation which is required for the desired change initiative to be successful. Essentially the equation states that dissatisfaction with the current situation, alongside a vision for a more positive future and the first steps towards that vision, must be greater than the resistance to change.

Another theory to consider is Kotter’s 8 step-model, which is a people-focused, structured approach that helps companies to diffuse employee resistance. It adds a little more substance to the change equation.

The model lays out the eight steps required to effectively introduce change.

1. Increase urgency.
2. Build the guiding team.
3. Get the vision right.
4. Communicate for buy-in.
5. Empower action.
6. Create short-term wins.
7. Don't let up.
8. Make change stick.

You can read more about The Change Equation and Kotter’s 8 step-model in our article about practical approaches to managing change.

Engaging with your team

When it comes to engaging your team in change, there’s three simple things that you can do to gain more cooperation.

1. Spend quality time in two-way communication with your team members to understand their perspective about the change effort you’re proposing.
2. Explain clearly to them why your change effort is beneficial to them as a group and as individuals.
3. Give them a role in helping you to implement the change effort.

Don’t manage your team under the false belief that they’re naturally going to resist any change that you propose because that’s just what people do.

Your team members won’t automatically resist you because it’s in their human nature to do so. If your team does resist change it will be because they don’t see much benefit in the change being proposed.

Being effective as a change leader requires helping others both to see and accept the benefits of your change efforts.

Watch Paul discuss established approaches to managing change in our recorded #ManagingChange webinar. You can also explore the theories mentioned further in our recent article.

Find more support for leading change with our #ManagingChange spotlight.

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