How to Manage Resistance to Change in the Workplace

Introduction

Resistance is widespread in all projects (regardless of size, scope, geographic spread, etc.), and it is often tiring and challenging to manage. There is a tendency to either ignore or try to crush resistance, but if it is managed proactively, carefully, and tactfully, it can provide a useful source of feedback that can be used to improve the likelihood of change success.

What is Resistance?

In very simple terms, resistance refers to the pushback or reluctance that individual(s) or group(s) within an organisation might exhibit when faced with a new initiative, process, or transformation.

What are the Causes of Resistance?

Several factors cause resistance and are often unique to the change itself and the individual(s) and organisation(s) involved, but a list of the common themes is below:

• Fear of the Unknown: When people are not fully aware of what the change will entail, they may feel anxious or uncertain. Remember, in the vacuum of news, people will often fill the gaps themselves with bad thoughts.
• Impacts on Individuals: People often resist changes they believe will disadvantage themselves individually, such as losing their jobs, making their skills outdated, reducing perceived promotion/development activities, and so on.
• Impacts on Work Colleagues: Similar to personal impacts (see above), people may be worried about the impact on work colleagues, such as losing their jobs or having their job roles changed materially.   
• Lack of Perceived Benefits: When employees do not see or fully understand how the change will benefit them or the organisation, they may resist it. 
• Lack of Trust in Management and Leadership: If employees have little trust in the leadership, then they are more likely to resist it (often regardless of how beneficial the change is). 
• Poor Communication: When the purpose, benefits, scope, and timeline of the change are not communicated effectively, then this could create a 'vacuum' of understanding that is filled by rumours and misunderstandings, which then leads to resistance. 
• Previous Negative Experiences: Past unsuccessful changes can lead to scepticism, which means employees are wary of new initiatives.  For example, if a firm is starting its third business transformation project in the last five years, then this will generate scepticism and resistance.

The Differences Between Passive and Active Resistance

While the above has noted the main types of resistance, it is important to understand that resistance can manifest itself in two main ways: 

• Active Resistance: This involves overt and often very public actions, such as vocal opposition, constantly questioning the change, declining to participate, or, in some extreme cases, disrupting change efforts.
• Passive Resistance: This resistance is much more slight and much harder to spot. It includes disengagement, reduced productivity, and minimal participation.

Identifying Resistance Within a Change Project

The key point to remember is that resistance is not necessarily bad, although it may feel like that when trying to manage it. The people raising resistance often work at the front end of the business and will have a much better understanding of the impact of the change than the people implementing the change or even senior management. Therefore, it is important that any resistance is identified, understood, and managed accordingly because it could help improve the likelihood of chain success.  
 
Initially, it is important to identify the causes of the resistance.

• Active Resistance: This is easier to identify because of its more open nature. Typically, I would arrange for a series of group meetings to discuss people's worries. However, it is important to ensure that these meetings are managed carefully. Otherwise, it could degenerate into a shouting match. It may also be necessary to hold some smaller, focused follow-up meetings to discuss any specific points. While this overall process can be unpleasant, it should give you an idea of the reasons for any resistance. 
• Passive Resistance: As noted above, this resistance is harder to identify. This means it will require tactful management to tease out what resistance exists and what is causing it. Typically, I would run a series of 1-2-1 meetings with anybody I feel is resisting passively.  On a 1-2-1 basis, people are more comfortable and willing to open up than if they were in front of a larger group.  Unfortunately, a large number of 121 meetings can take a lot of time to organise, but this must be done. 

There was one other point to note.  

When people give reasons for something they do not like, they often give two reasons, and to quote JP Morgan (the man who set up the bank in his name), "A man [person] always has two reasons for doing anything. A good reason and a real reason".  This means when speaking to people about resistance, it is important to question tactfully and dig into the real reasons.  

For example, asking tactfully questions like "Why?" or "Do you have any further reasons?". Again, this is done better on a 1-2-1 basis but with the previously noted overheads regarding the time and effort required.  A good example of this is that many years ago, I used to do a lot of offshoring project work, and a large number of people often resisted saying the offshore model would not work and would cost more than hoped, but the real reason was that they were (understandability) very worried about their own and their colleagues' jobs.  Once this was understood, we could manage it. 

Managing Resistance

Once resistance has been identified, this feedback can be used to improve the likelihood of change success. While each change is unique, some of the more common mitigation strategies are listed below. 

Leadership

This plays a critical role in overcoming resistance to change. Leaders who demonstrate credible commitment, empathy, and openness can reduce resistance by setting an example and showing a real concern for employee well-being during transitions.

Awareness of the Change Being Made and Its Benefits

It is important to ensure that the reasons, benefits and scope of the change are clearly and constantly communicated to all staff. This could be uncomfortable for some people (especially those adversely impacted by their change), but all people must know the facts behind the change and dispel rumours and mistruths. This communication needs to be at several levels. At the senior level, organisational-wide emails are good, but it's important to have much lower-level communications (such as 1-2-1s) to ensure individuals fully understand the change and its impact on them. 

Support Staff During the Change Implementation

All staff are impacted by a change more adversely than others (such as those losing or changing jobs).  Therefore, all staff will need to be supported during the implementation of the change. This may involve employing specialists (such as external counsellors or lawyers) to help with this. 

Keep All People Up to Date on Progress

To avoid rumours and mistruths, then it is important that all staff members are kept up to date on progress regularly. Again, these communications need to be on several levels. At the top level, organisational-wide emails should be fine, but it will be necessary to have 121 sessions with certain staff members to ensure they individually understand the impact on them.

Keep the Communication Channels Open

It is important that people feel that they are being listened to. While the above assessment appears as a one-off, it is important to ensure that people are constantly engaged to understand their views. Otherwise, resistance will continue to fester. Therefore, it is important to have a set of processes around regular meetings, an email mailbox, a list of frequently asked questions, etc, to keep the communication channels open. 

Be Honest with Staff Regarding Their Ideas

Some ideas around resistance can be incorporated into the change relatively easily (such as a technology subject expert providing ideas regarding development, testing and roll-out plans. However, certain other ideas, such as stopping and outsourcing projects, cannot be incorporated into the plans without materially impacting the change. Therefore, it's important to be open and honest with staff regarding how their ideas can be progressed or not. They may not like it, but they should know where they stand.

Involve Stakeholders in the Change

If people have good ideas (that have come from 'uncovering resistance)' then it may be a good idea to include them in the change (such as adding them to a project or review team). This will both (a) improve then change and (b) improve staff engagement, which can only improve the likelihood of success.

Conclusion

Managing resistance can be challenging, but when handled effectively, it fosters valuable feedback, innovative ideas, and higher engagement. These outcomes significantly increase the likelihood of successful change implementation.

Ignore or suppress resistance at your peril.