Resistance to Change: Pathological? Or often logical?

People resist change, and what does it teach us when they do? Their hesitancy, and sometimes-outright objections, can yield important insights for leaders who remain open minded enough to tap them to help their change initiatives succeed.

Over the years, a handy term has come into use in organizational literature and conversation, borrowed from psychotherapy: resistance to change. This phrase reminds me of some of the other psychological terms we use all the time to label troubling behavior in others: “passive aggressive”, “ADHD”, “manic depressive”.

While jargon and labels can serve a useful purpose, as shorthand for complex sets of behaviors, emotions and motives, there’s a risk: labels can distance people from one another. They can create the sense that “I know more about you than you know about you”. Labels can set us above others and, ultimately, create an illusory safety that relieves us from any responsibility for a situation or issue. Translation: if I can label you “xyz”, then blame shifts to you, and I don’t have to change anything about myself or the way I’m operating.

Learning from Resistance to Change
People resist change, and what does it teach us when they do? Their hesitancy, and sometimes-outright objections, can yield important insights for leaders who remain open minded enough to tap them to help their change initiatives succeed. Let’s take a brief look how you can approach resistance to change differently.

Noted Harvard University professor and author, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, has written extensively on change and why people resist it. A central point for her is that people have negative reactions to change, not because they are childish or lazy or psychologically unbalanced, but because they are smart and paying attention and they care. Further, according to Kanter, people are often right in their judgments that the change will be disruptive, may not be well thought-out and planned, and ultimately may not work at all.

No doubt, there are deeply rooted psychological processes sometimes at work when people hesitate, object, or refuse to accept change. But if you are involved in planning and implementing change, it is probably more useful to reconsider how you think about it.

Rather than tidy diagnoses of everyone else, you might be a lot better off if you undergo a little adaptive change of your own. Given the personal and professional stakes for leaders in the midst of a significant change, it’s no wonder our initial instincts may be swift and discounting when faced with negative reactions. You might find yourself asking questions like: “What do these people know?” “Why don’t they get it?” “Why don’t they just grow up?” But, as you might guess, those aren’t helpful questions if you hope to be successful in implementing change large or small, and having people with you when it’s done.

So, here’s a challenge: Try to speak without using the phrase “resistance to change” for six months. Try thinking this way instead: “People have concerns.” “They’re not convinced.” “They’re unclear about what to do, or what the change means for them.” “They’re tired, frustrated, disappointed.”

Tossing out the “r” word honors the people who will be carrying out the change effort, and acknowledges that their concerns may be real enough to derail the change unless they are faced and effectively handled.

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