In this third post, based on Nick Anderson's book, Focusing Change to Win, we highlight contributions from 1072 Business Leaders on The Why and What of Change. The post gives some of the key findings on change resistance and a sample of useful tips from the book.

Here's the reality: Leaders need employee support and trust if their change is going to stand any chance of success. Our contributors underscore this. If people are cynical about change, pessimism will set in, and failure is assured. Our contributors show that there are no simple remedies, no sound bites or grizzly 7-step plans. Yet, at its core, there are fundamental values that, if believed in, will offer a sound basis for planning and executing successful change. Change failures have left their mark on our contributors over the last eight years. Through their eyes, resistance is a brownfield site, where change is synonymous with downsizing, doing more for less, and treating people poorly.

Accelerated change demands more of everyone. Such change has major consequences for employees. Accelerated change failure creates cultural toxicity. Crucially, leaders need to separate the symptoms of change resistance from the stress that causes it. If they don’t, they are just like bad sales people trying to overcome objections not realizing 60% of those objections are of the salesperson’s own creation.

These contributors are saying that change resistance is natural, but you don’t need to make it more difficult if you do some things profoundly well. The chart on Change Resistence Factors gives a sense of the avoidable.

Once you recognize that change resistance causes stress then you can be more effective in reducing it. Our contributors say that, if leaders create clear and consistent frameworks, they help most people make informed decisions about committing to a change or not.

These are sound practices for reducing and managing people’s stress, but only if leaders realize the importance of Walking Their Own Talk.  

To register for a Webinar on this or other topics covered in Focusing Change to Win, please go to http://focusingchangetowin.com/webinar/.

For more of our thoughts on managing change, see "How Change Management Makes Your Projects Stronger" or use the form below to open a dialogue with the author or one of our other consultants.