Resistance to Change, or the Unknown?

People talk about the fear of public speaking as being one of the most common fears. Yet something that I’ve been looking at more recently is resistance to change. I realised many years ago that resistance to organisational change was usually due to personal insecurities:
- Fear of loss of status
- Fear of loss of power
- Wondering whether they can survive or thrive in the new situation
- And fear of not having the necessary skills or abilities

Of course not all organisational change is in somebody’s favour, so there will be times that somebody may be worse off. In the majority of cases though, it seems like people resist change before they’ve even given it a chance.

Now there are definitely some people that welcome and even seek change. Thankfully, often I fall into that category now, though it wasn’t always that case. I have noticed that while control is very closely corrollated to confidence levels, so is resistance to change. Perhaps because people can believe they are in control if change isn’t happening?

Something else that’s become very clear is that perhaps resistance to change is also about fear of change itself as well as these other insecurities.

Movie Moment
I got interrupted in writing this article at exactly this point. You’re probably wondering why I’m telling you this but it’s important. I’ve just watched one of my favourite films tonights, “Pay It Forward”. If you haven’t seen it, go out and hire it. It’s a brilliant film and that young lad, Hayley Joel Osmet is an absolute genius at acting by the way. He just has something really very special I feel…

Anyway, there’s a part in the film where Hayley’s character (who’s 12 years old) makes a comment along the lines of some people being afraid to ‘pay it forward’ because it would mean making a change. And even though their life might be pretty bad, it’s familiar and they’re too scared to try anything different. Watching this boy recognising this in people (yes, I know it's scripted!) was really quite profound. Isn’t it funny how life often gives us answers in the most unusual of ways… {Grin}

Perhaps this resistance is actually more about the fear of the unknown rather than anything else. Put that together with the optimism that things will get better (miraculously on their own of course without any input or change from the person!) and it’s a recipe for disaster.

What's Wrong with Avoiding Change?
To the person concerned it might not feel like disaster because everything stays the same. What if though, by everyhting staying the same nothing changes. What if by everything staying the same you miss on meeting that great friend or partner or business opportunity. What if you miss a supremely gorgeous sunset? What if you miss out on some precious time with your loved ones? What if you miss out on having loved ones?

Everything worthwhile requires a degree of risk. What is really the worst that could happen? Is that really that bad? Even if the worst happened it doesn’t mean you failed, it just means that it didn’t work that time… You can learn from the experience. What can you learn from everything staying the same? In most instances probably not very much.

So stop thinking it isn’t possible. Stop thinking it might be possible for them but not for me. Start asking yourself how bad would things have to get before you make a move? Start asking how long would you wait before trying a new approach? How much time, effort and pain would you have gone through in the meantime?

We never get that time back… What better uses could you put to that time? Who could you be a better model to? What little thing could you do differently that would start that change?

How Do You Eat An Elephant?
One bite at a time... Because changing your life is not about doing everything at once – that is a scary idea! It’s all about taking the first step, doing one thing. After that you do another. Then a while after that you do another. Guess what? A bit after that you do another and before you know it you’re looking back and thinking about how much your life has changed for the better!

So sitting there, reading this, right now, what one thing comes to mind that you could do, not do or do differently? What blocks might prevent you? How could you overcome these blocks? (By the way, I’m always happy to help…) When are you going to do it? How committed are you on a scale of 1-10? (I hope you said at least 7 or above or you probably won’t do it)

Happy changing! {Grin}


Una