Learning from Resistance to Change

Resistance to change is a frustrating and common aspect of project management. Resisting takes energy, which means stakeholders care enough about the project to expend that energy. Behind the pushback and complaints could be perspectives crucial to project success. Here’s what you can learn and utilize from stakeholders’ resistance to change.

• The root cause of the resistance. Most resistance to change comes from an individual’s or group’s experience. The root cause of their concern can identify project risks and provide a different perspective on stakeholders’ capabilities. Resistance often results from a lack of confidence or—sometimes, just the opposite. Stakeholders might believe they have untapped knowledge and experiences—and often, they do. Understanding those capabilities helps a PM integrate them to improve project outcomes. Consider carefully these root causes, as trivial or far-fetched as it might sometimes seem. Adjusting plans or compensating for those experiences can be the difference between project success and failure. 
• Knowledge gaps. Change resistance can be triggered by ignorance or a misconception about the project and its planned outcomes. For example, stakeholders might perceive a project as eliminating effective processes when, in truth, it will enhance those processes. That misconception can arise from rumors or a poorly written scope statement. When you discover knowledge gaps, it’s important to revise your communication plan to fill in those gaps and revisit the project communication already distributed. The project won’t progress if stakeholders don’t have accurate and complete information about the project intent and approach.
• Unknown sub-cultures or informal groups. Organizational leaders often don’t appear on the managerial org chart. Their followers might span several departments. Frequently, these leaders support a sub-culture within the organization. For example, mechanics within a manufacturing company could have developed their own approaches and expectations regarding shifts and manufacturing lines. They often think as one, so a leader opposed to a project could sway numerous stakeholders. Recognizing the presence of these informal groups and accounting for their way of thinking and influencing can address their resistance to change. Watch and listen in meetings. To identify these groups, note the people who eat lunch or leave work together and talk with others to identify these groups and their leaders.
• Unanticipated power shifts. A new and reasonable-looking business process initiated by the project might create an unanticipated power shift. Alternatively, key stakeholders may perceive one. For example, a project outcome automates a finance process. While it seems straightforward, finance and travel team members might resist this change, because they have been controlling travel costs by working together informally. The automation might eliminate their ability to collaborate and reduce costs – or appear to them that they will lose the power to control costs. In this example, the solution to their resistance is to work with them on how travel approval decisions will be made. 
• Project definition or plan improvement options. Project resistance could arise due to a missing opportunity. For example, stakeholders might see a weakness or inefficiency in a business process that isn’t recognized by people who don’t use those processes daily. Stakeholders would resist a project that looks to improve that business process but overlooks the issue with inefficiency. Talk to the resisters to identify the nature of resistance. Ask if something is missing from the project definition or project management approach that will help the business, help the project, eliminate a risk, and so on. 

For more about change management, check out Claudine Peet’s Change Management for Projects course.

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