Management Summary
Resistance is a normal part of change. Recognising this is the first step in transforming the supposedly destructive power of resistance into a productive force for change. How do you proceed afterwards?
- Categorise the resistance in the overall cultural context of your company: What is behind the fear associated with the change?
- Identify the dominant fears: Is it about survival? Is there a fear of failure or a fear of being overwhelmed?
- Recognise the fears without judgement.
- Address the fears and question them in order to understand them even better.
- Use the fears in a co-creation approach in the sense of the transformation goal.
If you also have the goal of reducing the prevailing fears in your organisation and permanently increasing the willingness to change, I recommend that you change the corresponding personality patterns. This is achieved by transforming blocking beliefs. Personal coaching provides the framework for this.
Why does change create resistance?
The basic needs that are violated during change are survival and security. This is why people who are affected by change usually block the new and try to maintain the status quo for as long as possible - even if it is not good for them and there are improvements to be found in the new.
Questions that come up are:
- What is happening here right now?
- Why does that have to be?
- Have I not been good enough so far?
- What will I lose?
- Will I understand the new?
- Will I be able to fulfil the new requirements?
How do managers deal confidently with resistance and use it to shape the transformation?
Resistance carries a power within it. This force needs to be channelled - similar to what happens in Asian martial arts. The opponent's force is recognised and directed in such a way that it brings the movement to an end.
Consciously directing the power of resistance.
Below you will find recommendations for action that will help you to recognise the forces behind the resistance more quickly so that you can then use them to productively shape the transformation in the second step.
Categorise resistance in the overall cultural context of your company
The first question that needs to be answered is: What lies behind the fear associated with change?
To answer this question, I recommend taking a conscious look at your corporate culture:
- What is the culture in your company? Do you have a Culture of trust or dominates the fear culture?
- If there is a Zero-defect thinking or a fault tolerance culture?
- Which Culture of change do you live in your company? How often are processes and structures changed? Are these changes understandable for everyone? How meaningful are these changes?
- How overloaded are the members of your organisation? How much time is left to really deal with new issues?
- How is the economic situation of the company? Is it doing well or are massive savings being made?
This cultural imprint provides you with clues as to which fears dominate:
- Fear of survival
- Fear of failure: fear of not mastering the new perfectly
- Fear of being overwhelmed / fear of being at the mercy of others
- Fear of failure
- Fear of survival
Recognising fears without judgement - the first step towards change
In my manager coaching sessions, I often hear managers explain to me that their employees' fears are unfounded. "This fear makes no sense." That may be true, but fears cannot be consciously explained.
Fear is an emotion that is fuelled by the unconscious. If we push the fear away, it becomes stronger. Just like in martial arts. If we try to counter the pressure with counter-pressure, we will injure ourselves because the force energy cannot flow freely.
Therefore: Recognise the fears that you perceive or that you have identified by looking at your corporate culture in a non-judgemental way. The fears are there - whether justified or unjustified. They are there.
Verbalise fears and understand them better
The second step in transforming this fear is to express what you perceive and ask yourself whether this perception is correct and where the fear comes from. Focus on the fear, illuminate this emotion from all sides so that it loses its power.
Try to understand what exactly the concern is:
- Is it the worry of making mistakes and not delivering perfect quality from day 1 of the new approach?
- What role does the fear of no longer being needed or losing influence at the end of the innovation play?
- Is it the worry of not having enough time to think through the new and implement it in peace?
- Could there be fundamental doubts about the usefulness of new ideas?
Example "Verbalising fears and understanding them better"
Your situation
As the managing director of a medium-sized company, you are faced with stagnating growth. At the same time, you have to invest in technology and innovation in order to keep up with the demands of the market. You are therefore continuously increasing the demands on managers and employees. You have launched a digitalisation offensive, which leads to great resistance. At the same time, you are demanding zero error tolerance in day-to-day business in order to reduce complaint costs.
Identified fear
You have identified fear of failure as the main cause of resistance.
Verbalising and questioning fear
In a staff meeting, you address this and want to better understand the background:
"I am aware that our digitalisation projects are meeting with great resistance.
My impression is that you are worried about being overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done in this regard. How are we supposed to manage this alongside our day-to-day business? What if we can't cope with the new systems and processes? What if mistakes happen and our customers are affected?
I would like to understand your concerns. What moves you?"
Transforming fears and using them as a productive force in the transformation process
Once you have understood the cause of the fears, you can work together in a co-creation approach to find a solution in line with the transformation goal:
- How does it succeed us to shorten the production time by 1 day?
- How do we manageto reduce the scrap by 10%?
- What would we have to doto reduce material costs by 15% without sacrificing quality or causing suppliers to suffer from this cost reduction?
- How do we manage to reduce the return rate of item X by 30%?
- What must happenwith our fluctuation dropping below 5%?
Involve employees and managers in the transformation as equal partners.
What can you do to permanently increase the willingness to change in your organisation?
You have four key starting points for increasing the willingness of managers and employees in your organisation to embrace change.
- Strengthen trust
- Increase the comprehensibility of the changes
- Anticipate and anticipate objections
- Solving the causes of fears
Strengthen trust
For employees and managers to break new ground and change their behaviour, they need to feel emotionally secure. This feeling arises when they trust. Trust must exist on three levels:
- trust in the relationship, i.e. trust in you as the managing director ("Can we believe him?"
- organisational trust, i.e. the trust that this change makes sense and that the company will also master this process ("Does it make sense what we are doing? Can we manage this as a team / company?")
- Self-confidence, i.e. trust in one's own ability ("Will I master the new thing?")
If you want to learn more about the role of trust in change processes, you can find impulses in the article "Change needs trust".
Increase the comprehensibility of the changes
This recommendation for action is also aimed at the basic human need for security. For, when we don't understand something, we feel insecure and usually don't get involved with the new. Therefore, Make sure that you formulate proposals and ideas in a way that is understandable and comprehensible to all.. Our proposal canvas is designed to help you structure your thoughts.
Anticipate objections
If you, in advance of the presentation of the proposals, have concerns and Anticipating the fears of those affectedYou can use these findings to make a presentation about the Anticipating objections in a targeted manner. Here are some examples:
- "Now you might ask, what's the point of doing it differently. (Objection) The benefit of the change, especially for your area, is ..." (Solution)
- "Now we often have the claim that everything has to run perfectly from minute 1. As this change offers a few special features, the changeover is to be made gradually in order to familiarise you with the new process as well.
- "Maybe now you're thinking, "Well, I'll be superfluous if we digitise all this."" The thought is obvious, but exactly the opposite is the case. Your role ...."
Permanently resolve the causes of fears - strengthen willingness to change
The causes of our fears are beliefs anchored in our personality.
These include, for example:
- I have to survive.
- I'm not sure.
- I'm not good enough.
- I'm not one of them.
In addition, there is a personality pattern that - like a Pavlovian reflex - triggers the fight reflex when changes occur. These patterns include beliefs such as:
- I have to fight.
- I'm going under.
- I must not flee.
- I have to defend myself.
- I have to rebel.
The quickest and most sustainable way to transform these beliefs is through personal coaching.
Did you find this article helpful?
