by Kimberley Hare
This past few days I’ve been enjoying Luc Galoppin’s fabulous e-book: “Resistance: The Five Things you Need to Know”. For those of us involved in either organizational or individual change, this is a must-read.
The Five Things are:
- Resistance is a Good Thing
- It’s about Managing Emotions
- It’s about Managing Relationships
- It’s about Managing Platforms
- It’s About You
This week’s Kaizen Tip focuses on the first one – resistance is a good thing.
“The enemy is a very good teacher” The Dalai Lama
Resistance to change is a crucial ingredient that is necessary to make change happen. Resistance fuels change. Without it, there is no change. We shouldn’t try to avoid or reduce resistance – we should be exploring and understanding the resistance.
Organizational change is rarely a linear, rational exercise – as many previous tips have highlighted, it’s mostly about emotions. Resistance is emotion, and emotion is the ‘motion’ that is needed to move through change. Of course, it can be a bumpy road, but it’s the only way through. The mathematical or linear approach to change assumes a straight line from the present state to the future state. This line is best described as
‘Analyse – Think – Change’
Yet, in reality, it turns out that in times of change motivation is more important than rational analysis. Perhaps the journey is better described as
‘See – Feel – Change’
Trying to avoid these emotions is like trying to cook without heat – the ingredients won’t fuse.
Toolbox: Resistance Map
There are different forms of resistance – and this useful map allows us to diagnose what’s really going on with different stakeholders, groups and individuals.
In order to fully understand this map, it’s important to understand a distinction between WHAT I WANT (Intent) and WHAT I DO (Behaviour). The vertical axis displays intent and the horizontal axis shows the behaviour we demonstrate on the outside. As a result there are four quadrants:
Commitment: when your intention is willing and your behaviour follows your intentions. Call this an authentic ‘yes’.
Resistance: when your intention is unwilling and this is aligned with your behaviour. The behaviour is ‘resistant’ but it’s open and ‘in your face’. Let’s call this an authentic ‘no’. This is quite rare – it requires people to be transparent about what they care about – and it goes against the cultural norms in many organizations.
The Stockholm Syndrome: this describes the behaviour of hostages who become sympathetic to their hostake-takers. It is the same kind of fear of repercussions that is found in some organizations during change. People start to act against their unwilling intent. From the outside, it might look like they are committed – but it’s a false ‘yes’.
The Otis Redding Syndrome: This comes from a line in the Otis Redding song “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” which says “Can’t do what ten people tell me to do, so I guess I’ll remain the same”. This describes people with a good intention who are somehow hindered to follow this intention – we could call this a false ‘no.’
In both the final two, people are acting in opposition to their intentions – a form of cognitive dissonance.
Can you think of examples of organizational change where you’ve seen these four types of response?
So what?
Well, like a geologist drilling for fossil fuels, you can use the Resistance Map to drill for fuel/energy. Essentially, the people who are being authentic, i.e. either “I want it and I’m doing it”, or “I don’t want it and I have the guts to tell you” generate lots of energy. The other two boxes in the map drain energy because they are coping mechanisms.
As change facilitators, part of our role is to create a platform where the expression of resistance is accepted, explored and respected.
“When you hear people say that change is hard because people are lazy or resistant – that’s just flat wrong. The opposite is true – change is hard because people wear themselves out. What looks like laziness is often exhaustion” Dan and Chip Heath.
Call to Action:
Think about a change you’re involved with, and use the Resistance Map to identify where you might drill for more fuel/energy.
Share this with other stakeholders involved in the change so that you begin to bring even more transparency and authenticity to the whole process.
Find out about the other FOUR things by downloading the whole e-book here http://www.slideshare.net
