Have you noticed the amount of articles, blog spots and journal inches talking about resistance to change. It seems many people think it’s an inevitable fact of implementation of change in any organization. Resistance is not a thing to overcome, the ignorance behind the attitude is the real issue. Resistance is a symptom of not understanding why something is happening, not an automatic reaction to change in itself. If leaders and change managers took more time and energy on explaining, involving and understanding why they are changing things, then resistance would not be such a big and misunderstood issue.
Think about all the research done on human behaviour in regard to racism, and perceptions of outsiders. Most racist behaviour is the result of not knowing the other persons culture and point of view – a prejudice born out of ignorance. It’s really hard to hate someone who you live next to and know just because of their race, religion or culture – if you take time to understand it. I believe the same is true of change resistance. The key to reducing it, eliminating it, overcoming it, is to ensure that people are engaged in the why question. If managers of change programmes changed the balance of energy they use on process mapping and flow charting to more engagement and explanation then they would find less and less resistant behaviour.