In any organisation, you must be mindful that the employees will decide if adapting to change will serve their purpose and benefit them. There are many reasons individual employees and groups may become resistant to change, such as fear, depression, venturing into the unknown, denial, shock and frustration. However, Kotter and Schlesinger have identified four reasons people resist change:
- Self-interest is dominant.
- Due to misunderstanding.
- People suffer from a low tolerance to change.
- Employees will derive their assessments about the change.
Kotter and Schlesinger have compiled a list of approaches to help you unblock these barriers to change (known as the Six Change Approaches):
- Education and communication. Education about the change should occur before the change takes place. Communication is critical. It is better to over-communicate than not to communicate.
- Participation and involvement. Involve the team, including those employees that could potentially resist the change. The team can participate in designing the change, which will give them ownership.
- Facilitation and support. Provide each team member with emotional support, education, and training to help them manage the change.
- Negotiation and agreement. Employees who are resistant to change can be offered a financial incentive to overcome their resistance. However, this approach is biased towards employees who are resistant to change and unfair to those who are not resistant to the change. Any financial incentive should include all employees involved in the change.
- Manipulation and co-optation. This approach seems unethical, but it may be the only alternative available if all other approaches fail.
- Explicit and implicit coercion. This approach involves threatening employees and teams to undertake the change. The threats can consist of rewards being withdrawn or losing their jobs if they do not accept the change.
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