Overcoming Resistance to Change: Proven Strategies for Business Leaders

If you’re leading a transformation, know you will face resistance to change – possibly from over a third of your workforce. Each individual has their own capacity for adapting to change, so you should expect to see a range of resistance levels, even within the same teams. You should also know that resistance to change is a natural, human and, managed well, potentially beneficial reaction.

Just because change resistance is inevitable, it doesn’t mean you can’t prepare for and mitigate it. During business change more than ever, perception is reality, and it is the role of change leaders to frame their projects powerfully and positively to maximise adoption and minimise resistance.

In this Change 101, you will learn:

Just as different people have different capacities for change, each individual will resist change differently. Recognising the type of resistance you’re facing can help determine the best way to address them. Resistance to change can be categorised in a variety of ways, including:

Overt/active or covert/passive

Overt or active resistance is visible, open and direct. Individuals are clearly against the change and express it through words or actions. Conversely, covert or passive change is hidden, indirect and subtle. It’s often harder to detect because it may appear as compliance on the surface while concealing underlying resistance.

Logical, psychological or sociological

Change resistance can also be categorised based on what it is grounded in:

Individual or organisational

Resistance to change can manifest at an individual or organisational level. Individual resistance comes from a person’s own perceptions, emotions and concerns. It’s often rooted in personal fears, habits or misunderstandings. When systems, structures or a status quo culturecreatebarriers to change, it’s less about individuals and more about organisational resistance. This can be harder to overcome, as doing so often requires a higher volume or larger scale of change and transformation to remove systemic barriers.

Regardless of its type, the telltale signs of resistance to change tend to show up in patterns of behaviour, communication and performance. They might include:

Early detection of resistance gives leaders a chance to address concerns before they impede progress. This isn’t always easy, and even subtle signs such as hesitancy or silence can indicate resistance. The key is to watch for patterns, not just isolated incidents.

The impact of change resistance will vary based on how widespread It is and how well it is managed by change leaders. It can range from minor delays to major staff turnover. Potential impacts could be:

Unchecked resistance can at best cripple change efforts and at worst seriously derail or damage organisational progress, reputation and stability.

These impacts often compound if change resistance is ignored or disregarded. Without being addressed, change resistance won’t go away; it will fester, spread and cause more damage while becoming harder to erase.

Again, the reasons for change resistance will depend on your culture, your impacted people and your change type. However, Common causes of resistance to change include:

Resistance to change is not unique to the business world. It is a natural, deep-rooted instinct, and it can be traced back to the earliest humans; natural selection breeds caution of the new – be it a new technology for us or a new predator for our ancestors –  as well as an attachment to comfort – job security for us or a safe, habitable territory for early man.

Assuming your change project won’t see you realise a sabretooth tiger into the office, the change resistance you’ll see is more likely to align with one of Kotter and Schlesinger’s common reasons for resistance:

Here are some of the specific reasons you might be seeing resistance to change in your organisation:

Fear of the unknown

We’re all creatures of habit, and uncertainty about what a change means leads to anxiety and reluctance to engage. Without clear direction, we assume the worst and cling to what we know and are comfortable with.

The benefits aren’t visible

A lack of awareness might mean people don’t see how the change will help them or the organisation, so they lose motivation.

Lack of control

If people feel the change is being imposed on them without their input, they will resist it. Almost a quarter of employees feel excluded from change decisions, increasing their opposition.

Lack of trust or confidence in the change or leadership

Teams can doubt the motives, credibility or capability of those leading the change effort, especially if they’ve experienced failed or poorly managed change before.

Missing required skills to work in the new way

Employees might believe in the change but doubt themselves or worry they will be left behind due to a lack of knowledge or training. One survey revealed as many as 42% of employees felt they weren’t being given the skills they would need in the future.

Broadly, these drivers of change resistance boil down to two things: a lack of understanding or a lack of commitment. Employees experiencing one or both of these can play different roles in advancing or derailing your project:

We’ve acknowledged that resistance to change is an expected, natural instinct. But before we move on to how to prepare for, manage and overcome it, we should point out that it’s not always a bad thing. Ignored or handled poorly, change resistance can be catastrophic to your programme. But when faced head-on and addressed with empathy and authenticity, it can actually improve your delivery and outcomes.

The loudest critics of your change initiative might be voicing genuine concerns that haven’t been considered, so it’s important to take valid feedback on board. Doing so uncovers gaps in the change plan or in the change itself – after all, not all change is good, and it isn’t always timely. By allowing these diverse perspectives to be incorporated, you will ultimately smooth out delivery, realise better business outcomes and help to build a culture of trust and adaptability.

Remember, resistance is not always opposition; it’s information.Handled with curiosity and openness, it can be one of the most useful tools for change success.

Before embarking on your change, it’s important to consider the change journey your impacted people will go on. As touched on earlier, people often experience change as a loss, with Constantinescu and Alexandrache even showing unwelcome change mimics the emotional journey a person experiences following the passing of a loved one. The Kübler-Ross Change Curve is one model that reveals how employees react emotionally to big changes, and it’s no coincidence this model replicates the stages of grief:

This model serves to remind leaders that change is highly emotional, and that their teams need time, patience and support to process change, especially if it feels sudden or personal.

It also evidences what we believe is the main driver of successful change: putting your people at the heart of it throughout. And this is never more pertinent than when dealing with resistance to change.

Now you know the stages your people will go through during change, here’s how you can effectively prepare for managing change resistance:

Take a holistic view

Before diving straight into trying to convert individuals, step back and look at the bigger picture. Viewing the overall system, including people, processes, systems and culture, will help you consider where and why resistance is likely to emerge so you can prioritise strategically. It might also reveal systemic barriers that individuals can’t overcome, like communication gaps or incentive misalignments.

Learn from the past

Review old change projects and focus on when and where they encountered resistance, and how its leaders tackled this. Whether they did so well or with room for improvement, there are lessons to be learned that can help your organisation ‘do change better’ in the present and the future.

Conduct a change readiness assessment

Afiniti has identified 6 key Levers that make or break change. Resistance can stem from any or many of these, so identifying gaps in your organisation by conducting a change readiness assessment, such as Afiniti’s 6Lever^TM change readiness assessment, can predict and pinpoint likely sources of resistance.

Complete your change impact analysis

A change impact assessment will reveal who will be affected by your change and in what way. You can use this data to decide where you need to focus your change management efforts and which tools or techniques you’ll need to manage change resistance.

Run stakeholder analysis

Understanding who your key stakeholders actually are is as important as highlighting how they’ll be impacted by your change. What are their concerns? What will motivate them? What type of communications will they best respond to? Thorough stakeholder analysis at this stage will make all of your change management efforts much more effective.

Listen and understand

Involve your impacted employees from day one. Encouraging them to participate in the shaping of your change uncovers gaps in your plan, surfaces potential pockets of resistance and creates authenticity in and buy-in for your change story right from the outset. People will feel empowered and emotionally supported and will be far more likely to engage with your change, not resist it.

Build your resistance plan

Even if you do all these things, you’ll still face resistance at some stage. Therefore, you should build a resistance plan that sits alongside the communications, training and sponsor roadmaps and includes:

To reiterate, put your people at the heart of your change in all of these activities, recognising they will be going through an emotional journey. In doing so, you won’t be reacting to resistance; you’ll be ready for it.

Change resistance will happen no matter how well you prepare your organisation and your people for your initiative, so it pays to be proactive in how you will overcome resistance when it inevitably rears its head. Here are the proven approaches for minimising and mitigating resistance to change during delivery:

Set a clear roadmap

We said it before that people fear the unknown, so we can address this cause of resistance by removing the unknown. Establishing and communicating a clear, timeline-driven roadmap for rolling out your change will give your people something tangible to attach to and make it easier for them to join you on the journey. This will also help to set their expectations and build confidence in the change and those leading it.

Demonstrate active leadership

Leaders should be the biggest advocates for change; after all, they’re the ones usually driving it. Leaders should be aligned on the direction and goals of the change and cascade this consistently and confidently to their teams. They should be proactive and visible in role modelling the expected behaviours or new ways of working if they want their teams to buy into and adopt the change.

Bring the empathy

We’ve established how change is emotional for everyone, and as such leaders need to demonstrate empathy throughout a change programme. As well as encouraging and actively listening to the concerns or needs of their teams, they should communicate with transparency and honesty to build trust. There’s a big difference between announcing something to your team and genuinely talking to them.

Create your change story

A compelling narrative for your change has myriad benefits: it helps bring the change to life and make it real for people, forges an emotional connection and makes it more exciting and therefore engaging. A strong story also helps leaders to communicate consistently to reinforce key messages.

Communicate and over-communicate

Develop a high-impact communications plan that focuses on expressing the benefits of your change and crucially answers the ‘why’ and ‘what’s in it for me’ questions that your impacted people actually care about. Change communications should be anchored to your overarching change story and vision, but they should also be tailored for different audiences, addressing what’s important to those individuals using tones, channels and mediums that will resonate with them.

Celebrate success

Often, change teams will wait until a project concludes to celebrate success. But change can take years, so sharing success stories at key moments or milestones can maintain engagement momentum over long periods. Shouting about your successes also reinforces the benefits of your programme and strengthens your teams’ confidence in it.

Incentivise, recognise, reprimand

Speaking of celebrating success, you should incentivise those colleagues who demonstrate the right behaviours and attitudes. This doesn’t have to be financial – social recognition such as awards or shoutouts can go a long way to overcoming resistance to change. That said, if there are true disruptors who don’t look likely to convert to your cause, don’t be afraid to have difficult conversations and demonstrate consequences for intentional derailment of your change efforts. You can’t win over everyone, but you also can’t tolerate active sabotage forever.

Create change champions

Your people are more likely to believe in your change if their peers do too, and this is why change advocates are so powerful. Train and empower a team to cascade your key messages and champion the benefits of your change to their colleagues. Bonus points if you can convert previous naysayers to your cause, but bear in mind giving them a bigger platform to share their opinions is also risky!

These activities should be staples in your change management arsenal, and deploying them with people at the heart is a surefire way to overcome change resistance and ensure your change lands, sticks and realises business benefits.

We recently worked with an organisation, largely unionised, who were going through a major office relocation. The move was an exciting opportunity for the company to bring their teams together, working collaboratively in one building with an obvious cost saving through efficiency.  However, the location was not suitable for everyone, so unfortunately, a large number of employees were leaving the organisation when we were brought in. Nonetheless, we worked with them to create belonging and pride in their work and projects – for those staying and for the people leaving behind their legacy.

For those staying, it was an opportunity to create a future vision, recognising and rewarding good practice and performance through employee roadshows, team videos, staff awards, case studies and featured team posters and articles.

For those leaving, it was about capturing their knowledge and years of expertise. A number of these individuals were videoed through knowledge share clips, giving them a real sense of pride in what they had achieved, discussing best practice, ways of working and crucial real-life information not captured in technical manuals that would have been lost forever.

In doing so, we were able to project a positive perception of the core change, despite the organisational upheaval it had initially caused, and keep remaining colleagues on board with the benefits of the big move.

Where the signs of change resistance can often be subtle, the signs that you’ve successfully overcome it are often more obvious. These include:

Increased engagement

People are participating in engagement activities, completing the tasks assigned to them to drive the change forward and contributing ideas and opinions.

Strong morale

Just as you can identify downbeat or concerned cultures, the buzz and buoyancy of an engaged, enthused and excited workforce are hard to miss, especially during periods of business change.

Achieving objectives

You only ever set out on your change to achieve specific business objectives, right? Have you implemented your change and realised those benefits? If the answer is yes, you’ve probably managed resistance to change effectively.

Sustained behaviours

Aside from business benefits being realised, the mark of successful business change is whether new behaviours, processes and ways of working are sustained. If you have managed your change and any resistance to it well, you shouldn’t see anyone reverting back to old habits – conversely, they should be rejoicing in the benefits brought about by your change.

Don’t forget, change resistance is never static and will manifest in different ways during the lifecycle of your project. Your change leaders should remain vigilant to the signs of resistance and agile in how they address these, adapting their approach to the specific requirements and worries of different teams and individuals. Without reinforcing your change after it has been delivered, progress can revert, so recognising and rewarding success and tackling challenges as they emerge will ensure your people can sustain your change for the long term.

If you’re anticipating or facing challenges with resistance to change, get in touch to discuss how Afiniti can help you overcome this to derisk your programme and accelerate the realisation of business benefits.