How to Prepare Contingency Strategies for Managing Resistance to Change

As businesses grow, executives must prepare employees to cope with changes.

The notion that organizational and structural changes are inevitable is a truism of business growth. According to Christopher Worley of the "Graziado Business Review," this change often provokes employee resistance because it "disrupts the momentum and inertia of organizational processes." Worley also states that resistance can arise because employees cannot understand "why change is necessary and what it will accomplish." When business managers face such resistance, they must create contingency strategies for managing and allaying it.

Instructions

Discuss Concerns

1. 

   Discussions with concerned employees are a crucial part of managing resistance to change.

   Reach out to employees to learn as much as possible about their concerns. Find out what fears and uncertainties motivate their resistance. Steve Nguyen of "Workplace Psychology" notes the importance of "[encouraging] employees to openly express their thoughts and feelings about the change program."

2. Note recurring themes as you speak to employees. Nguyen advises the manager to "[listen] carefully to [employee] concerns, explore their fears, and take their comments seriously." Construct a list of recurring fears that you must address.

3. Construct a cost-benefit analysis that focuses on what individual employees have at stake. Take steps, Nguyen suggests, to "[identify] those who have something to lose, and anticipate how they might respond." Think about how you might respond to perceived personal risks for insights into the way your employees might continue to resist.

4. Organize recurring themes and fears on a spreadsheet so as to prepare a logical, consistent, and organized response to the resistance. Use as much detail as possible.

Control Narrative

1. Explain the reasons for the change to your employees. Address their concerns head on, but focus on the potential benefits to individual employees as well as to the business. Worley notes the importance of creating "logical consistency" such that the arguments for change "share a logical consistency or framework" and that "one idea intuitively makes sense given another."

2. Provide employees with as much detailed information as possible. Tony Kubica and Sara LaForest of "Zero Million" website explain that employees who lack candid information are apt to feel that important information is being hidden from them. Acknowledge these kinds of rumors, and deploy factual information to dispel them.

3. Reassure employees that you take their concerns seriously. Tell them that you will continue to seek their feedback throughout the transition process. Thank them for their cooperation with the transition process.

Increase Employee Involvement

1. Give employees important roles in ensuring successful change. Nguyen suggests finding "new roles...that represent genuine contributions and mitigate their losses." When employees participate in tasks designed to ensure transition success, they begin to feel invested in the transition process.

2. Seek consistent feedback about the transition process as changes occur. When employees express continued resistance, show your willingness to compromise by making changes that benefit the resistant employees.

3. Underscore the importance of human capital. Tell the employees that the transition cannot succeed without their collaboration, and make sure they know that they are invaluable to future successes.

4. Reward cooperative employees with consistent positive feedback and business incentives.

Tips & Warnings

• Refrain from overstating the potential benefits of change. Employees can detect overblown rhetoric; provide them with candor and honesty.

• Always take care to assess your reasons for change as objectively as possible. When employees correctly perceive a reckless decision, admit fault and correct the mistake.

• Never promise employees more benefits and rewards than you can reasonably provide. Failure to follow through on promises is devastating to business relationships, so err on the side of caution when making promises.

References

• "Graziadio Business Review": Managing Resistance to Change
• Zero Million: Managing the Transition
• "Harvard Business Review": Decoding Resistance to Change
• Troy University: Overcoming Resistance to Change by Managing Readiness for Change
• "Quality Digest": Managing Resistance to Change

Resources

• Business.gov: Keeping Pace with Change and Growth