We’ve all heard some variation of:
“People don’t like change.”
But people change constantly. They move house, change jobs, learn new technology, start and end relationships.
People change how they work when they find something better, which makes me wonder whether resistance isn’t really about change - perhaps it’s about meaning.
Change doesn’t fail because people resist it
Organisations often interpret hesitation as resistance.
A new system is introduced. Adoption is slow, people continue using spreadsheets and typically teams look for or create workarounds.
The conclusion?
“People don’t want to change.”
But that’s often the wrong diagnosis.
People may not understand what problem is being solved and they may see consequences that the project team hasn’t considered.
These same people may have experienced three previous transformation programmes that disappeared six months later… so it’s easy to see why fatigue and resistance set in.
What looks like resistance may actually be perfectly rational behaviour when viewed through this lens.
The organisation sees the programme but the people experience the consequences.
Senior leaders see strategy, milestones, benefits and investment cases but employees experience something much more immediate:
- What does this mean for my job?
- Will this make my work easier or harder?
- What am I going to stop doing?
- Who decided this?
- Does anyone understand how my job actually works?
Change looks very different from the place where it is designed than from the place where it is experienced.
Communication is not the same as understanding
Organisations respond to uncertainty with communication plans: town halls, emails, slide decks, FAQs.
But telling people something repeatedly doesn’t necessarily make it any more meaningful.
There is a huge difference between:
We’ve communicated the change.
and:
People understand why the change makes sense.
Change creates complexity before it removes it
Transformation often promises simplification eventually, while creating additional complexity immediately.
For a period, people may have two systems. Two processes. New responsibilities, but unclear ownership.
As a result, there is new terminology and new measures to get to grips with. There are also new expectations, which creates downward pressure from the organisation.
Successful change isn’t simply persuading people to accept the destination - it’s about helping them navigate the messy period between the old organisation and the new one.
People need permission to learn
Change inevitably means people becoming less competent temporarily.
Someone who knew exactly how to perform their job yesterday may suddenly be a beginner again.
If the organisation expects immediate perfection, people retreat to what they know.
Leaders therefore have to create enough psychological safety for people to experiment, ask stupid questions, learn and naturally make mistakes without fear.
A different question
Instead of asking:
How do we get people to adopt the change?
Perhaps organisations should ask:
What would need to be true for this change to make sense to the people affected by it?
Change isn’t something organisations do to people - it’s something people have to make sense of for themselves.
Plans matter, effective communication matters, training matters but you know what matters the most?
Understanding.
Lasting change happens when people understand not only what is changing, but why changing makes more sense than staying where they are.
