Podcast: Resistance to Change: Unpacking the Psychology Behind Change Aversion
“You can't improve something if you don't change something. You can't just wish it to get better,” says John Dyer. “So, if there is a tremendous resistance to change, then nothing is ever going to get any better.”
In the latest episode of Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement, podcast co-hosts Dr. Mohamed Saleh and Dyer explore the psychology behind change resistance.
Within the conversation, Saleh outlines five factors that may drive resistance. They include:
A state of innovative fatigue. “There has been so much work overload on the individuals to the point that they are just burnt out and emotionally exhausted,” Saleh says. “It's not that they don't want your change. They're just exhausted and burnt out. And, so, the best way to not have another thing that they have to now do is to block you.”
Loss of control. Individuals know the status quo, so to change means a loss of power and/or a loss of knowledge. “Here you come, introducing the unknown that could take away my power or that could take away the knowledge. And now I'm no different … an expert than anyone else, and I'm kind of reset again. Why do I want that?”
The “concrete head.” This resistance factor addresses three layers of resistance: ego, pride, and preconceptions and beliefs.
Break in community. “As you go through … changes, some people might block you because your change could break their community,” Saleh says. “You need to be mindful of that, that there's a community that's established, that you're disrupting, and so get to understand the community before you make those changes.”
Misunderstanding reality. As an example, Saleh describes top leaders making a change that impacts the front line, but which doesn’t reflect the reality of the front line at all, “and there was no empowerment or engagement from the front line to feed that decision making,” he says. As a result, the individual resisting change questions, “Do you understand what you're asking me to do? Okay, [it] makes no sense.”
Change, notes Dyer, knocks people out of their comfort zone and creates the potential for resistance if not pursued correctly. To the change agents, Saleh says, “Make it their journey, not your journey.”