Chapter 9: "I can't, I won't and I shouldn't"

"I can't, I won't and I shouldn't"

Resistance and influence in successful change

If you’ve ever been part of an unsuccessful change effort, it should come as no surprise to you that mobilizing commitment is one of the keys that actually drives successful change.

But, as we discussed last time, it’s pretty unrealistic to expect everyone to be your change initiative’s biggest fan. Some folks aren’t going to be as supportive as you need them to be, and some are going to be actively opposed to it. To get their commitment and support, you’re going to have to get smart.

Fortunately, that’s not as hard as it sounds. First, it helps to figure out what kind of resistance you’re dealing with. The GE change acceleration process (CAP) breaks it down into just three different kinds of resistance: technical, political and cultural.

Technical resistance usually has to do with concrete and tangible reasons why the change is a bad idea or won’t work. The person who resists your change effort on technical grounds will likely be concerned with the cost of the project, the abilities of people to deal with it or insufficient resources to do it right.

The person who resists on political grounds is concerned with issues of power and authority. Perhaps she’s worried that the new, post-change world will take away her control of the sales process. Maybe he thinks the change will make his group less powerful in the company. Whatever the specifics, the political resister needs to know that his or her position won’t be threatened by your initiative.

Cultural resistance arises out of concern for the prevailing mindsets, norms or habits of behavior and interaction in the organization. The familiar refrains of, “That’s not how we do things around here,” or “That’s just not our culture,” are warning signs of cultural resistance.

The bad news about all these kinds of resistance is that you can never hope to overcome them 100% with logic and reason. There’s a lot of emotion and irrationality tied up in change resistance, and some of it runs pretty deep.

The good news, though, is that successful change doesn’t require overcoming 100% of the resistance. You simply have to ease the concerns enough that the resister moves to where you need him or her to be on your stakeholder analysis matrix. Next time we chat, we’ll talk more specifically about three techniques to do just that.

Eryc Eyl / Freelance Writer and Business Consultant