Overcome Organizational Resistance to Change with Two Conversations

Research finds that anywhere from 50%–75% of change efforts fail. Why is change so hard to do in an organization?

The first thing you need to do is identify who — that is, which individuals and groups — have the biggest potential to thwart positive change. Then you have to unstick them. Doing so begins with understanding their perspectives. Once you have done this, you can then move on to trying to overcome their resistance.

Effective dialogue with resistors typically requires a minimum of two conversations:

1. In the first conversation, you listen and diagnose the roots of the resistance.

2. In the second conversation, your goal is to make clear that you have reflected on what you heard; to outline what will be different, or not, in your approach to the change based on that conversation; and to explain why.

We’ve found that anyone who truly listens to the opposition will have their thinking changed in some way so you can at least be genuine about that.

The time in between these two conversations is critical. We recommend at least two days, depending on the scale of the change. If you respond immediately, either during the initial talk or within a few hours, resistors won’t believe, perhaps rightly, that you’ve fully considered their point of view. But don’t wait more than seven days, because at that point the person feels dismissed and forgotten.

Source: hbrascend.org

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