Seventy-three percent of managers who responded to a recent witness feel that people in their organizations are not flexible and adaptable when adjusting to organizational change. In a day when organizational change is more rapid and constant than ever before, the fact that nearly ¾ of all employees are unyielding to change poses a huge obstacle to any organizational or team leader who must help their teams expand and adapt effectively to change.
Webster University
The fact that the majority of employees may be unyielding to change must way heavy on any team leader's mind who is attempting to heighten execution by implementing any type of change since resistance may greatly diminish the leader's own capability to successfully implement change even if they are personally convinced that implementing the change will increase productivity, cut costs, heighten competitiveness or overcome threats and obstacles. Gone are the days of command and operate organizations where a leader can implement change by decree. Without the buy-in and enthusiastic maintain of the vast majority of the workforce, there will be huge obstacles that preclude eventual success in implementing change. Maybe this is the fancy why studies show that success rates for changes in Fortune 1000 clubs are less than 50% and even could be as low as 20% (Harvard business Review, 1998, p. 140).
The logical inquire to ask then is what can a leader do about it? Before a leader determines what to do, it would be helpful to understand why the resistance exists in the first place. Our witness results offer leading insights into why employees resist change. Too often it is easy for managers to view their organizations as machines, which can be tinkered with and improved upon with the hope that when you are done, they will be able to turn it back on and presto, it will go! Rather, contemporary organizations are more like living organisms, with interconnected systems that are dependent on one other and influence one another. Living organisms do not lay back and react passively to exterior stimuli. When pricked they flinch; when threatened the whether turn and run or turn and fight. Because organizations are made up of people, it is to be unbelievable that they react this way. But leaders often forget what our witness points out; that people react with dysfunctional behavior in response to organizational change because their first preoccupation is not what is best for the organization as a whole, but how any change will first influence them. One witness responded called this the "what's in it for me factor." Many respondents of the witness characterized this initial reaction to change as fear; fear of the unknown, fear of a loss of power, fear of losing friends and colleagues; fear of losing a job; fear of not being able to accomplish a new role; fear of failure, etc. So, leaders should not be surprised if individuals react negatively to change when they treat their organization as if it were a motor and not a living, breathing, feeling organism, made up of individuals who will naturally be most involved about how the change will influence them personally.
Keeping this in mind, respondents to the witness offered many suggestions of how leaders can lead and influence their teams more effectively during times of change. These ideas can be synthesized into a road map that should prove helpful for leaders to consider when organizing and implementing change. The suggestions include:
1. Build an environment of trust with the employees in order to generate a workplace where employees are more open to ideas and more willing to discuss possibilities and problems linked with change. To do this, respondents mentioned the need to be open to ideas, to listen, to furnish a safe environment where people are free to express their opinions without fear of retribution, etc.
2. Link the change attempt to a common team value in order to help employees feel they can recap to the change attempt at a personal level. This increases the desire and motivation to change.
3. Declare and recap a clear message about why the change attempt is needed and will help the team. Don't rely on facts and figures alone to maintain the reasons for change. Facts and figures don't inspire and motivate people to action. Linking to values and aspirations does. Respondents to the witness emphasized that this transportation cannot be seen as a one time event. Rather, it should be constant throughout the attempt and it must reach out to all members of the organization on as frequent and personable a level as possible. They also point out that this transportation must be honest and complete. One respondent mentioned that there is reluctance to without bad news. However, more damage is done if bad news is discovered through the "grapevine" than if it is communicated open and verily by leaders.
4. Form a foresight with the employees with regard to the possible advantages of making the change in order to help the team define for themselves where the change will take them. Roughly all respondents to the witness emphasized that employees must see the benefits of the change. They must understand that the change will have positive impact on them personally.
5. By far, the most common suggestion by witness respondents with regard to how to heighten the effectiveness of a change attempt linked to spellbinding team members in the change. A leader must collaborate with team members so that employees are involved with and buy into the changes and not comprehend the whole exercise as something that is being done to them without their consent.
6. Form and celebrate wins along the way. The leader should actively orchestrate wins and celebrations so employees can see that the change attempt is leading and see that changes in behavior will lead to positive outcomes.
7. The leader must conduct execution nearby the change. This includes coaching those who need maintain with the change, disciplining or removing those who continually resist the change or have decided to fight against it, rewarding positive changes, hiring employees who have the new capabilities needed in the change effort, etc...
8. Constantly monitor the process and the results to ensure that the change attempt is on track.
How to Overcome Organizational Resistance to turn
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