How to Adapt to Change Amidst Team Resistance
Things are changing fast but are your team members resisting change? It might simply be that they cannot figure out how to adapt. A leader’s responsibility is to make it seem effortless for them. This resistance to change can be because of working from home for the past few years. They are happy with how things are, and they do not want to try anything new. However, the problem is that the world has changed since, and you must adapt to change to survive. In this article at Harvard Business Review, Bill Taylor shares how to adapt to change when your team is resisting.
How to Adapt to Change Despite Resistance
There are two ways you can break the ‘active inertia’ of your team members:
Tactic 1: Foot-in-the-Door
Enforcing an enormous change will meet with resistance for sure from the team. If your team members are wondering how to adapt to change, start with small changes. Talk to them first and create an atmosphere of joint ownership. This will enable them to take steps to embrace the change. But ensure the request you make is sensible. Stanford professors Jonathan L. Freedman and Scott C. Fraser explain that “it is somewhat difficult to refuse a reasonable request.”
Tactic 2: Door-in-the-Face
When asked about the secret behind his team’s consistent achievements, Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi remarked, “Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.” Instead of giving them a moderate goal to achieve, why not look for the ultimate milestone? Even if people do not reach it, you will get what you want. When you scale up the expectation to an extreme level, workers usually will go above their current capabilities. It is something Wharton professor Jerry Wind terms “the power of impossible thinking”.
To view the original article in full, visit the following link: https://hbr.org/2022/04/persuading-your-team-to-embrace-change
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