Change Generally Comes With Resistance – What Are The Reasons And How To Manage Them?

Project Management / By

Generally most of the people assume that the change being resisted is beneficial; that it’s the right thing to do. A “poorly design or inappropriate change and ineffective communication regarding need for the change” are the main reasons for its resistance. People love to remain in the comfort zone in life, so anything that disrupts it, creates unrest. That’s the reason people resist change, they feel insecure and dejected. Change managers always must look at the emotional ties to the thing they want to change. People only resist the pain of change, what about gain due to change.

Below is the list of some reasons for resistance to change:

  • Misunderstanding regarding changes or the need for changes
  • Fear of the unknown like losing power and or position
  • Lack of competence
  • Connected to the old way
  • Low trust
  • Temporary fad
  • Poor communication
  • Exhaustion/Saturation
  • Benefits and rewards
  • Being satisfied with short term gains over strategic or long term goals
  • Incomplete or incorrect knowledge of a new system or process

Some of the listed reasons to resist have been ‘earned’ – due to the company’s execution of the previous few change projects. For example, company change their main system, for example in an insurance company, it changes its Policy Admin system from Future first to Life Asia. Transitioning from one system to another in the middle of a project causes a lot of pain and cost and schedule growth.

  • Knowledge sharing has a significant impact on mitigating resistance to change resulting in success of the project.
  • Educate and train people about the new system or methodology and empower them to enhance their effectiveness or give them more control over the quality of their work.

How to manage it

  • Address it formally – As soon as any change comes to you, address it formally, check if it has approved by the change control board.
  • Identify the root causes – Find out the root cause of changes and resistance for changes. Look for reasons like complaining, not attending key meetings, not providing requested information or resources, or not ready to adopt a change to current process. To be effective at managing resistance, one must go in-depth of what is ultimately causing the resistance. Effective resistance management should try to figure out the root cause of the resistance and try show the big picture to the audience.
  • Identify all the stakeholders who are resistant to these changes – The change management team is not an effective resistance manager. Even the critical stakeholders are not effective resistance managers either. Finally, leadership takes the ownership to manage resistance in the organization.

Senior management should include experts who can help to analyze and resolve resistance by making a strong case for the need for change and by demonstrating their commitment to a change. Employees trust their senior management and listen to them very carefully and then they judge what they hear and what they see from this group. It is important for senior leaders to be committed to a change or waver in their support, else it may dilute the significance of the change for their employees.

 

About Aditi Malhotra

Aditi Malhotra is the Content Marketing Manager at Whizlabs. Having a Master in Journalism and Mass Communication, she helps businesses stop playing around with Content Marketing and start seeing tangible ROI. A writer by day and a reader by night, she is a fine blend of both reality and fantasy. Apart from her professional commitments, she is also endearing to publish a book authored by her very soon.

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