Overcoming Resistance to Change: Allow Choice

People Don't Resist Change: They Resist Being Changed

People, in their personal lives, make all sorts of life changes every day: they buy new cars; new homes; deal with the death of a loved one; adapt to Twitter; get married; develop new skills; relocate; hire a daycare provider.

"Not all of these changes are smooth.  But most of the time we seek those changes ourselves and make them successfully."
-- Peter Bregman, Professional Coach and Consultant

So why do seventy percent (70%) of all corporate change efforts fail?  Simply, in organizations, people feel coerced.  And so they respond with the only power they have to regain control: they resist.  The really bad news: instead of working to dissolve resistance, management creates it.  And, then, wonders why their efforts fail. 

You'd have to ask: Why do people embrace change in one instance and resist it in another?  Simple: people resist being changed. 

How to fix this?  Choice.  (BTW, choice is exactly the way that nurturing Montessori teachers deal with obstinate two-year olds.) Bregman provides a simple three-step plan:

1. Define the outcome you want.


2. Suggest a path to achieve it.


3. Allow people to reject your path as long as they choose an alternate route to the same destination.

The changes we're speaking of could be small: a new piece of software; an office remodel.  Says Bregman:

 Give them control. Let them make decisions.  If you offer them two choices (apple or grapes) and they pick a third (banana) you have the opportunity to cede control to them as long as their choice achieves the outcome acceptable to you (fruit). Then they own their decision and are happy with it because they made it themselves.

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