Transcript
Alex Erickson - We've all heard that change is inevitable but it's also a really hard piece of our lives to accept. I wanted to continue speaking about the resistance to change that we see from a different lens than we've previously viewed. We've discussed the behavioral science factors that cause resistance. But I wanted to take a deeper dive into the more direct factors that we see. I'm Alex Erickson, a Change Management Consultant here at Valorem Reply. In this video, we'll be going over six reasons we see employees resist change and some of the ways that our change management team here at Valorem help to mitigate those.
Firstly, their selective perception. This is where we see people focusing on how the change will affect them personally. Whether it's because it doesn't align with their personal health beliefs or their values.
Next, there's a lack of information. People don't understand why a change is happening and what its purpose is. It's that old saying if it's not broke, don't fix it. If the reasons for the change are unclear people can assume the worst. Piggybacking off of that is the fear of the unknown, the amount of what-ifs that can flash through someone's head after a change is announced is endless. They may fear a loss of position, stability, power, or even income.
We're also creatures of habit and disrupting that can be a cause for resistance as well. People prefer actions and events that they're familiar with. Breaking a habit can be really hard even if the outcome of that change is favorable to them.
We also like stability in our groups and structures. In our work lives, we build communities and change can disrupt those. Organizational changes alter that stability and can create resistance to that change.
And finally, a little harder factor to navigate is employees not liking the communicator or the decision maker. It's a human response to resist change when feelings are not taken into consideration. Fears from the other factors combined with this one cause people not to trust the intentions of a change and ultimately resist it. So those are the more direct human responses to change. We've got selective perception, lack of information, fear of the unknown, habit-breaking, stability and finally distrusting the initiator. But how can we mitigate some of those factors? Well, we have a couple of avenues to help. Communication and education and participation and involvement. With communication, we want to be as transparent as possible in the change and why it's being brought about. If we can provide benefits of the change that goes a long way to changing mindsets. We also try to focus on education or training. If the change will disrupt a workflow or a tool previously used, let's make sure that the end user is, one aware of that and two, knows what their path moving forward will look like. Then there's participation and involvement. Can we bring in people for interviews, to talk about the downstream effects or can we survey a group to get their feedback on their worries? Listening and involving others in this way also allows you to build trust within your organization. Making empathy a focal point of the change can help mitigate a very human response which is resistance to change.
If you have any questions about change management or the methodologies that we utilize here at Valorem Reply, feel free to reach out. Thank you!
As Prosci certified change experts, we know that people are at the core of every change and that the pain points we experience when adopting new things all stem from a lack of focus on the human experience. Because of this, we put people first. Our multifaceted methodology combines the power of research-based organizational modeling and adoption processes like Prosci's ADKAR with our deep knowledge of behavioral science and people strategy. We know how, where, and why people work through change. Learn more.
