Reflection On Resistance To Change

Throughout my live, my behavior towards change has evolved into a more mature acceptance of the inevitable. As an adolescent, I failed to contemplate the reasoning behind changes that occurred within my life. I

“The images, metaphors, or frames that we hold, both of managing and of change, influence our ideas of what we think managing change is all about” (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2009). As people we all see through our own eyes, we call see a different perspective and have a different reaction to what is coming next. As human beings we react differently to situations. Situations of change are transitions that some are able to adapt to quickly while others have a hard time. Being the leader of that change can be difficult and helping make a change does not come easily or effectively. Keep and Newcomer (2008)

We all recognize that change comes at a cost and that at each crossroad we have the opportunity to determine which road to follow. We can accept challenges, making them work to our benefit, or we can resist progress.

Leaders change systems, structures and policies that have not yet been confronted. They hire, promote and develop employees who can implement the vision for change. In addition, they revitalise the process with a new round of projects or change agents.(Cengage Learning AUS, 2015)

Change is defined as “more or become different”. In order to move in the right path for the future you have to do something different. Leaders recognize this often, and this is why they call for change. In the words of Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr “change is essential to life; be willing to surrender what you are to what you can become“. Both Sojourner Truth and Abraham Lincoln had to take a chance to call people to action. Truth’s speech most effectively inspired people to action be being able to meet her audience, pathos, and logos.

The reality of change is a scary but a necessary situation during life. It brings people together through hard times, like hurricane Katrina. It could tear a society apart as it did to the Roman Empire when it fell into the wrong hands of a blood thirsty dictator. Changes could be harmless, in the sense that human life didn’t die because of it, like East Africa transitioning from a jungle to a grassland. Changes sometimes go unnoticed, like the sky changing from sunny to partly cloudy. Throughout all these different kinds of changes, people react in different ways and may make hard, indecisive decisions on how to solve or deal with the problem or issues. Change effects humans differently throughout time or in a matter of an over night experience,

Organizations must respond to their internal and external environment. Therefore, organizational success heavily relies on leaderships ability to manage change. Unfortunately, many leaders struggle to effectively lead change initiatives. In fact, Ashkenas (2013, para. 1) reported 60 – 70% of organizational change initiatives fail to meet their objectives.

Change is constant in both our professional and our private lives. Our children grow up taking for granted things like powerful personal computers that we could not envision at their ages. The idea that human beings naturally resist change is deeply embedded in our thinking about change. Our language, our assumptions, and our mental models about change all seem to imply that something in our natures leads us to resist change. However, it is easy to find examples of human beings, from childhood on through old age, actively seeking out change of all sorts. Human beings do not necessarily resist change automatically; however, many people do resist being changed, i.e., having changes imposed on them.

Change can be unnerving for everyone, but how one approaches it determines an ultimate outcome. Growing up in a society filled with opportunity and acceptance is an eye opener to how I can be a helping factor to a completely new atmosphere. Every community has its own unique characteristics, and being able to add to them helps improve the unity as a whole. These positive aspects require the acceptance of change and diversity, as well as commitment.

Change is a basic part of life. Leaders, whether it be the CEO of the company or you, must anticipate forces that will cause changes, identify opportunities that will require changes, react to unforeseen events that make changes imperative, and work with others to overcome the predictable reactions to change, which almost always include some amount of resistance, often to a significant degree.

I agree that change is an unavoidable event that people react to base on their temperaments and coping mechanisms. Some people, who are considered laggards and rejectors, might call this change as adversity. Mullins (2009) stated that it isn’t how much adversity we face in our lives, but how we face them. Do we let it overpower us? Or, do we embrace it? It is indeed the role of the change agent to recognize and understand that there are different responses to the change. The question now relies to what responses do we have to put our efforts in order for the change to be successful. Do we focus on the laggards and rejectors because they are the wall that hinder us from moving forward?

The environment we work in is always changing, our processes and programs are always evolving, which requires us as leaders to be both transformational and transactional. In order to flow with our battle rhythm we must be willing to change and encourage followers to change along with the organizations vision, strategy and culture. You cannot get too comfortable in the way our organization is set up, to be effective you

Change is a double-edged sword (Fullan, 2001). Change is a word that might inspire or put fear into people. Leadership is challenging when it comes to dealing with change and how individuals react within the organization to the change. Marzano, McNulty, and Waters (2005) discuss two orders of change in their book School Leadership that Works; first and second. Fullan (2001) also adds to the discussion in his book Leading in a Culture of Change, with regard to understanding change. In Change Leadership, Keagan and Wagner (2006) discuss many factors of change and the systematic approach to change. Change affects people in different ways. Leaders need to be able to respond to the individuals throughout the change process.

Since human beings are adaptive and familiar with change, how is it that they often resist change in their work environment? This question had troubled managers since the beginning of the industrial revolution, and the fast peace of change required by the electronic age has made

In order to move forward and keep ahead, I believe an organization need change leaders who have capabilities to have their workforce go from change avoidance to change acceptance. “One of the most significant strengths of an effective leader is the ability to create a positive work climate where people are energized to do their best work, free of unnecessary distractions” (Cronkite, n.d.). During this part of the change process I feel the change leader would have better success if he would be tactful and harness the skills of others by working in a collaborative rather than hierarchical way. Leadership in an organization involves instilling motivation and enthusiasm in the employees. An effective leader knows how to manage and tackle difficult situations and people. Many reasons can cause a force of change in organizations but I feel it’s up to change leaders to manage these planned and unexpected changes. (Word count: 548)