Why change creates resistance

We all know that change is all around us and it’s going faster and faster. Most of us have also to promote change as part of our jobs and in other parts of our lives.

Most of us are all too familiar with the resistance that we encounter from people when we are trying to make things happen. We treat it as an inevitable feature of change. Unconsciously perhaps we remember our physics from school and Newton’s third law of mechanics – ‘every action has an equal and opposite reaction’.

What though, if resistance is not inevitable? What if it’s a product of the way we go about change?

What is resistance and where does it come from?

Most change inherently unsettling because it is based on the assumption that where we are is not OK. It may have been OK in the past but now we HAVE to, NEED to or MUST do something else.

All change involves doing things differently. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a new IT system, a change of strategy, a merger or buying a new house - the implication of change is that we and/or others need to change the way we behave.

And it is the change in behaviour that we resist. We’re well adapted as humans to learning what works. Once we have something that works, though, we tend to keep doing it – even when it’s no longer the best approach to the circumstances that we find ourselves in.

Changing what we do has risks attached. The results we get will be less predictable and we may make mistakes. We’re likely to need to work harder and pay closer attention to what’s happening as we try new things and need to adapt them based on the feedback we’re getting. Because of this we sometimes resist change

We should remember, though, that every single person is constantly in a state of learning and growth. Every day we encounter new things, make new sense of ourselves and our world and adapt ourselves to our circumstances. Much of this change feels natural, effortless and even enjoyable. The truth is that we can’t help but change - and we certainly do a lot more changing than we do resisting.

So if sometimes we change and other times we resist, what determines the way that we respond? What conditions promote and support change rather than creating resistance?

So what conditions promote change over resistance?

Take a moment to cast your mind back to a time when change for yourself seemed effortless and natural. What can you remember about the conditions that made it easy?

You’ll probably find that a number of things were present:

• You’ll almost certainly have had a clear picture of where you were going (or at least of the benefits that you were hoping for)
• You will have felt confident and capable enough to make the changes you needed to make.
• There will have been a personally compelling reason to go there that related to something that was very high up you list of personal priorities.
• You will have had the relationships to give you the support you needed to make the change. This support usually includes someone to talk to about the changes, and who you can trust to give you constructive feedback about whether you are on or off track.

Seeing change as a problem

Interestingly, the conventional ‘problem solving’ approach to change is not good at producing these conditions.

• The focus is usually on the gap and the present problem/s and rarely is enough clarity generated about the destination.
• The emphasis on deficiencies tends to have a disempowering effect – "I can see that’s the problem but I’m not sure I can change’.
• This in turn creates defensiveness – ‘Why should I change?’ because it becomes easier to knock down the change than to admit we’re not confident of changing.
• The defensiveness and reluctance, coupled with a human dislike of being confronted with our shortcomings, fractures relationships and depletes trust.

Is there an alternative?

We need an approach to change that creates the conditions which promote it. Appreciative Inquiry is one such approach which has been spreading across the world into applications which include organisations, community development, education, therapy and economic development to name but a few.

About the Author:

Chris Henderson is founder and leader of Leadership Connections, a network of associates who bring a variety of skills and experience to any project requiring management, leadership or change management expertise. Chris helps leaders and organisations pull forward together through a range of coaching, mentoring and development services. He can be contacted via the Leadership Connections website at www.leadershipconnections.co.uk