Overcoming resistance to change

Resistance to change does not rarely become a serious obstacle to the implementation of various projects: the introduction of new information systems, management methodologies, organizational changes and other projects that affect the work of employees.
What is resistance to change, where does it come from and how can it be overcome?

Denial, anger, bargaining ...

There is a misconception that resistance to change is the deliberate actions of employees, aimed at ensuring that everything is “as before”. In fact, resistance to change is due to the psychology of human behavior and is often not even realized by them.
The famous psychologist Virginia Satir, who analyzed how people perceive changes in their lives, called their source "an alien element." No matter what it is. This could be a serious illness attack or a new far-reaching leader. What they have in common is that these alien elements deprive a person of peace. People are beginning to experience confusion and strong irritation due to the fact that they no longer feel the ground under their feet and the stability of the near future. According to Satir, this painful phase is inevitable and after it there is an adaptation and the subsequent acceptance of a new reality.
Another model, described by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in his book, On Death and Dying, was included in change management textbooks. Kubler-Ross investigated the psychology of doomed patients, but despite this, the conclusions of her work interested management specialists. Kubler-Ross singled out five steps of a person’s psychological state on the way to inevitability: denial, anger, bargaining (what should I do to reverse events?), Depression and, ultimately, acceptance. Not necessarily in such a sequence, but an employee of a company undergoing organizational changes also has similar feelings.

Cannot be ordered to live in a new way.

In practice, resistance to change is not expressed in deliberate actions against change, but primarily in reduced performance. Employees do not begin to do something “for evil”, more often they simply stop doing something, or do not do what is necessary (they act by inertia, in the old fashioned way). And this is not due to malicious intent, but because of the psychological characteristics of human behavior, in its reactions to changes.
This leads to an important conclusion - people cannot be forced not to resist. It is impossible to order "to live in a new way" - this is the first mistake that many implementers make. Using only the mandative methods only shakes the employees, makes their future even more vague. This only increases resistance.
So, resistance to change is a decrease in productivity or employee engagement in work, due to negative expectations. The degree of resistance or support in the change process is described by the change curve.

Prior to the announcement of changes, employee performance and involvement in the work is at a certain unchanged average level. There is no reason to change it.
In change management there are 5 stages of the transformation process:
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1. Rejection

It immediately follows the announcement of the changes.
“Why change something, so everything is fine” - this is what everyone says and always, when they first hear about changes, when the motives, goals and consequences of changes are not clear.

2. Resistance

“It used to be better,” “Here in our previous system,” and so on. Employees are afraid that the changes will take them out of the comfort zone and they will have to make some effort. Employees in every way they try to prove that it used to be better.
Not infrequently, resistance at this stage takes on hysterical forms. This is a period of unproductive disputes.

3. Analysis

It is at this stage that projects fail!
As resistance ceases, employees fall into a “stop state,” a form of depression in which a person does nothing. At this stage there is an awareness of the inevitability of change. Employees analyze the possible consequences, understand what is required of them.
At this stage, employees need information to feed, a clear indication of what to do and what is not, who is responsible for what. If not, the project goes down on the brakes.

4. Interest

After the employees realized and accepted the inevitability of changes, they begin to look for the benefits of a new situation for themselves. The emerging benefits and prospects create optimism about change, employees become supporters of change.

5. Adoption

New rules, tools and practices are becoming the norm, employees understand that they open up new opportunities and allow you to more effectively solve problems.

How to manage it?

In overcoming resistance to change, three factors are crucial: People, Motivation, and Information.

People

Attitudes towards changes are based on the scale of human values: if safety and stability are the highest value for him, then he will avoid any changes, if growth and development are important for him, he will welcome them. According to people's attitudes to change, sociologists divide all people into groups:

A. 2% - “resisting” (unwilling to change anything)
B. 14% - “waiting” (afraid to make a mistake, require proof)
C. 34% - "inert majority" (trying to identify errors and threats, require prior verification)
D. 34% - “less inert majority” (trying to identify new opportunities, participate in discussions)
E. 14% - “testers” (they like new ideas and perspectives; they are ready to try them, they are buying not a “product”, but a “promise”, trying to be in the front row)
F. 2% - “inventors by nature” (they always think in a new way and want to change everything)

Depending on which group the employees belong to, the motive for joining the transformations will be different for them. Ways to overcome resistance for them will also be different.

• 16% of people (E, F) are innovators. Well, when the implementation team consists of such people - this ensures the success of the transformation. The motivation of innovators is “we did it”, “we are the first”.
• 34% (D) - inert, value stability and immutability, but not averse to using new features. Such employees need to demonstrate what benefits and new opportunities they will receive from innovations. Maybe for someone it will be a new position or a new job. For this group, first of all, personal perspectives are important.
• 34% © are inert, cautious, afraid that it will become worse, as well as for group D they, first of all, it is important that the changes affect them personally. For this group of employees, it is necessary to show that nothing fundamentally will change in their lives: salary, boss, duties - in general, everything will be just like now, some details will change. In a calm state, these employees will follow Group D, looking at the fact that nothing happens to them and accepting, after them, all the changes.
• 14% (B) - until the last, all changes will be considered a mistake and a bad idea. As a rule, such employees do not actively influence the course of changes. But it is very important that they are not in the implementation team. One such employee in a team can stop the whole process.
• 2% (A) - militant retrogrades. Even when everything happens, they will be nostalgic for the old days. It is very important to know such employees in your company. At the time of the changes they are best sent on vacation to avoid their destructive influence.

Motivation

One of the main tasks of the implementation team is to find the benefits of change literally for each employee affected by these changes. You need to clearly realize that change is a stress for employees and only the right motivation can help you read it. The nature of this motivation depends on which group of attitude to changes the employee belongs to.

Informing

Often, in the process of change, the role of information is greatly underestimated. It is necessary to see how the team of revolutionaries develop something for a long time, then they announce to everyone that they need to live in a new way. This is an erroneous tactic, most often, it leads to all sorts of losses.
An organizational system is a community of people. No need to harbor illusions. The work of the "group of revolutionaries" will be known almost immediately. And in the absence of official information about their work, it will be replaced by speculation and rumors that are not at all positive. People in general tend to prepare for the worst, and in our country all the more. As a result, by the time the change is announced, they will already have a negative image, the inert majority will already be opposed to the changes.
Therefore, it is important to begin communicating changes immediately, at the beginning of preparation for them. It is necessary to give a reasonable explanation of their need, the goals that pursue the changes, roughly to indicate the time.
It’s not necessary to talk about all the details, but you need to convey the idea that the changes will be positive and beneficial - this will help in the future to cope with the resistance to change.