Causes of Change Resistance

It has long been observed that resistance to change is a common characteristic of organizational life. For change managers and leaders, resistance is a big problem that can threaten positive change outcomes, cost lots of money, damage an organization's competitiveness and efficiency, and jeopardise its position in the marketplace. To know how to deal with resistance, it is important to understand where it comes from.

Mostly, resistance is caused by a lack of change readiness. There are 5 areas where this lack of readiness becomes most critical. These areas are:

1. Individual change readiness is weak. Individuals who lack the 7 change readiness resources and whose personal narratives are filled with barriers and problems find change really challenging, and often resist it. They do so because they don't feel confident with change. 

Why Failure Is Not An Option

The most important secret of wealth preservation is to make peace with your fear of becoming poor. You can't control the economy. You can't control the forces that affect your business. But you can control your emotions. By making friends with fear, you will enjoy the wealth you have and make smart, wealth-building decisions.

To make friends with fear, you have to imagine yourself living a simple life, one that can be supported by a modest income, enjoying your work and the time you spend with your family and friends. Imagine that until you feel comfortable with it.

What is your idea of what wealth is?

For some people's wealth is financial. But for others, wealth can be just having friends and family they are close to. 

Career Coaching for Success in a Changing World

Change brings stress and its human nature to find comfort in patterns of consistency. The crutch of predictive repetitiveness is that it is unsustainable. We need to change or adapt in order to survive. The world is changing with more frequency as we enter the knowledge economy fueled by digital communications and technological advances. These changes create uncertainty and reinventing our knowledge, skills, and abilities on a weekly basis is more than challenging. Globalization has contributed to the mass confusion of where we fit into the picture and how we could do something substantial with our lives. There is more competition for resources than ever before in our human history.

With all this change and complication has come increased knowledge and understanding. We have acquired more worldly views and gained a new appreciation for learning as a society. Doors have opened where there were none before. New industries have evolved and newer platforms will emerge in the future. 

Changing Change

Change is uncomfortable. It's not what we're accustomed to experiencing. Typically, the process of change doesn't "feel" good. Now, sometimes it feels good to know we're doing something that's outside of our norm and for our best, but usually, we don't enjoy the product of change until we're reaping the hard-earned rewards of our work - which happens after we've endured the process of change.

People are reluctant to change - not because they don't believe there might be a better way, but because the process of getting to where they want to be - feels all too unfamiliar. So, they turn back - they go back to what they know - they return to routine.

If you've read any of my articles before, you know by now that I'm fascinated by change-management concepts. I'm intrigued by human behavior, especially as it intersects (and sometimes interferes) with our professional lives. How do we stop doing what isn't working and start doing what would help us become successful?