Resistance to change
Topic 9 Resistance
Q1) Too often behaviour is attributed to individual factors such as personality rather than to systemic causes that may be promoting such behaviour. What are the system or structural issues that promote resistance behaviours in your organization?
Q2) Review a recent change in your organization. Can you identify the strategies used to reduce resistance? What other strategies would you use now?
Theory
Kotter & Schlesinger (2008, P.134) demonstrates that the most common ways to overcome resistance to change is to educate people about it beforehand and communicating the ideas of change. Ford & Ford (2009, P.100) identified that the resistance can be a form of feedback and resource to find a better plan and solution.
Practice
Our project team worked with our system vendor lately to implement functional upgrade to meet the new business needs for placing global deals through internet platform. In the first stage, they gathered meeting with our internal IT programmers, frontline network team heads, operations managers, risk and compliance managers to discuss the questions and the things needed to be alert for preparation. During the discussion, they collected different voices and feedbacks as well as acknowledged their concerns about the systemic change and the operation risks. After consolidated the information and feedbacks, the project team started to plan and design a change program. They invited the related parties in charge and the advisable persons to be involved as the project committees. As the project team grouped with different line managers, they are more understood the situations and what needed to be changed. They shared out the change vision and exposed the idea of change on various levels. It is more likely the underlying people will be accepting the idea of change rather than surprising them with change will cause high level of resistance. Since the line managers are responsible the key role in implementing the change in this way.
Q1) Too often behaviour is attributed to individual factors such as personality rather than to systemic causes that may be promoting such behaviour. What are the system or structural issues that promote resistance behaviours in your organization?
Q2) Review a recent change in your organization. Can you identify the strategies used to reduce resistance? What other strategies would you use now?
Theory
Kotter & Schlesinger (2008, P.134) demonstrates that the most common ways to overcome resistance to change is to educate people about it beforehand and communicating the ideas of change. Ford & Ford (2009, P.100) identified that the resistance can be a form of feedback and resource to find a better plan and solution.
Practice
Our project team worked with our system vendor lately to implement functional upgrade to meet the new business needs for placing global deals through internet platform. In the first stage, they gathered meeting with our internal IT programmers, frontline network team heads, operations managers, risk and compliance managers to discuss the questions and the things needed to be alert for preparation. During the discussion, they collected different voices and feedbacks as well as acknowledged their concerns about the systemic change and the operation risks. After consolidated the information and feedbacks, the project team started to plan and design a change program. They invited the related parties in charge and the advisable persons to be involved as the project committees. As the project team grouped with different line managers, they are more understood the situations and what needed to be changed. They shared out the change vision and exposed the idea of change on various levels. It is more likely the underlying people will be accepting the idea of change rather than surprising them with change will cause high level of resistance. Since the line managers are responsible the key role in implementing the change in this way.