When creating a culture shift in an organization, it is wise to have a plan for overcoming resistance. This plan should consider two separate, yet overlapping areas of action to overcoming resistance: People-focused actions and Task-focused actions. Below, you will find an outline to consider when creating a plan for overcoming resistance to change, focusing on People actions and Task actions.
PEOPLE-FOCUSED ACTIONS
People-focused actions include (but are not limited to):
- Support and Commitment: Display unwavering support and unquestionable commitment to the change process and the associated fears that might be created by the process of change.
- Communication: Communicate a strong message about the urgency for change.
- Repetition/Endurance: Repetition is one of the most powerful and underutilized tools of communication. Maintain ongoing (and repeated) communication about the progress of change.
- Macro-management: Empower people to implement the change. Avoid micromanaging.
- Advise/counsel: Help people deal with the discomfort of change (fear of loss).
- Adaptation: Anticipate and prepare people for the necessary adjustments that change will create, such as retraining or career counseling, where necessary
TASK-FOCUSED ACTIONS
Task focused actions include (but are not limited to):
- Assess: Be aware of the cultural and organizational landscape of supporters and opponents of change.
- Build Coalitions: Create cultural coalitions, internally and externally, to support the task changes required.
- Create Alignment: Align culture and organizational structure with new strategies.
- Recruit: Create a culture that selects competent and committed supporters of change.
- Organize: Use task forces or committees to shape implementation activities.
DISTRACTING FACTORS
While there are many factors that can explain why a change initiative may fail, there is one factor present when change is successfully executed: Cause. Cause can be defined as the ability for a culture to leverage the primary human drive to belong to something larger than ourselves, without being distracted or discouraged by outside factors. Below is a list of factors that often serve as distractions and are perceived as obstacles to successful change.
Individual personality: “That’s just Joe being Joe. It’s just his personality.” Personality can be described as the tendency to behave in a particular way. Whether we are aware of it or not, our environment, the context that a culture creates for others at work, is a much stronger influencer of behavior than a personality.
Desire for change: No one wants to find themselves in an unhappy work environment. Very often, we find ourselves in a situation because change occurred slowly without our desiring that change or even being aware of it. The old axiom of a frog and hot water: If you take a frog and place it into a pot of hot water, it will jump out. But if you put the frog in a pot of room-temperature water and raise the temperature slowly, the frog will actually not jump out until it’s too late.
Resistance: Resistance can be overcome (and real change achieved) by providing a complete picture of the change process and how the process will be easier and/or more rewarding when the change is completed.
Others must change: If you are waiting for change in others before creating change in yourself, you will be frustrated by your wait. By creating change in yourself, you change the environment of those around you, thereby influencing their behavior to change as well.
Laws of behavior don’t apply to everyone: Whether you are at the top, middle, or bottom of an organization; whether you are Caucasian, Black, Latino, Asian, or come from any ethnic and racial background, as long as you are human, the laws that govern human behavior govern you.
These are just five of the many common reasons clients have suggested why their culture or organizations can’t or won’t change. If you want/need to change a person’s behavior in your culture, consider changing factors of context (i.e., accountabilities, consequences, team members, etc.). Being more knowledgeable about what influences human behavior allows us all to influence our culture in a more positive way.
Keep cultivating your culture!
