Thoughts from Bloomstorm's Mike Bird

Resistance is Futile

Most approaches to change rely on a false assumption. It is this: most people are resistant to change and hence the job of the change agent is to overcome this resistance.

Nonsense.

The job of the change agent is not to 'overcome' this resistance. It is to make such resistance irrelevant.

We can see this most clearly when we consider changes that are unpleasant, such as headcount reduction or enforced relocation or the imposition of security standards for IT. After such changes, typically, people are worse off: they have more work to do or they have fewer resources to do it or their existing work is disrupted. Organisations only embark on such changes because they are necessary. Whether people resist or not, the change must happen. So what are the key things that we should do to make sure that such changes succeed?

Don't sell the change: People are not stupid. Contriving spurious personal benefits to answer the question "What's in it for me?" is largely a waste of time because such 'benefits' are usually not credible. In addition to diverting often quite large amounts of effort unnecessarily, selling such benefits damages your change implementation in two ways. First, it corrodes the trust people may have in the programme and whatever you say about the change. Second, we already know that bad things are likely to happen. If people aren't prepared for these, then the impact of the change on the people concerned will be even worse.


Make new way of working as easy as possible: It is shocking how many organisations introduce changes without making the slightest effort to ensure that the new ways of working are easy. Think of the last time new procedures (for anything!) were introduced to your organisation and you'll most likely see what I mean. If we are asking people to work differently in unhappy circumstances then the very least we should do is make sure that the new ways of working are as easy as possible: more convenient, simpler to operate, clearer and unambiguous. Work on oiling the wheels of change, rather than finding and selling spurious 'benefits,' and your change will be implemented faster and more effectively.


Make the old ways of working more difficult: When people are under stress, they revert to where they are most comfortable. In the change environment, this is typically their old ways of working. If you make the old ways harder, then the new way of working becomes preferable under stress. What do we mean, 'harder?' In simple terms, it means making it less convenient, or more demanding, or entailing more work. Extra forms to fill in, additional screen pages to work through, phone numbers being harder to find - these are some of the ways that organisations have found to make the old ways harder.

Remember, however, that there is little point in doing this unless you have put as much effort as possible into making the new way of working easier. Carrots work better than sticks.


Pay attention to what you want: Organisations implement unpleasant change through necessity. If it is important that people work differently, then the organisation's management need to pay attention to how people are doing it. Such attention is the primary and most effective way for an organisation to demonstrate and communicate priorities. So if an organisation introduces an important change but its managers don't pay attention over time to how the change is operating, then we should not be surprised if the people in the business stop paying attention too.

So, for critical change, it is crucial that managers pay attention - and continue to pay attention - to whether people are working differently and how well they are doing so.


Listen to your people: An adage of the British army states that "no plan survives contact with the enemy." By the same token, no matter how well planned and tested your change, the reality of its implementation will reveal numerous flaws and opportunities for improvement. It will reveal these things to the people who are living with it daily. Expect this. Seek out their views and enable the change to be adjusted quickly in response to what you hear. Especially with an unpleasant change, the more you can help people take control of the change, the faster the adoption. Remember also that in this case, "your people" should very often include your customers...
Of course, while these ideas are driven by the need to implement unpleasant change, the same principles apply to any change, even nice ones.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on.

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Mike Bird
Bloomstorm