You can’t manage change — so stop trying
Leaders must focus on the “pushback” that comes from fear
You’ve probably heard the notion that its not that people don’t want things to change. Its that they won’t accept a change in their life if they don’t value where the change is taking them, or refuse to believe that it will make their life better.
Human beings are constantly changing. Our cells are multiplying, we grow bigger (then shrink as we get older). We change our clothes, our minds, our points of view. So why is change such a big deal?
Business gurus tell us that we are living in a VUCA world. Volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous. To “win” in this new business reality we must be ahead of the game, and be prepared to be disrupted. In this new reality, anything can happen. Apparently we can even “get VUCA ready” — mostly through planning and stockpiling resources. I find this advice shocking, unhelpful and misguided for leaders. Unless you’re a fortune teller, when has the future ever been clear and certain? By protecting ourselves against the “known unknowns” aren’t we closing ourselves off from the potential opportunity that change brings?
The biggest barrier to businesses embracing change is not a VUCA world. External forces do not make a challenge impossible — it is how cultures react to change that breaks a business.
When we believe that the world is too big, too fast, too aggressive, we feel out of control. With this frame of mind anything that seems different can trigger fear of the unknown.
Enter the idea of “change management”. Manage the change, decrease losses. Keep things strong, stable and reduce risks. It’s a false premise that gives executives comfort and given consultancies a license to print money.
A leader’s role is not to manage change, but to manage the energy and “pushback” in the business that comes when people fear the change they experience. This is done not just through restructuring, and implementing new systems and processes, but through understanding and working with their culture, and by galvanising people to creatively solve whatever problem comes before them.
Fear of what might happen when things are different to our lived experience make us believe that we are losing control. A culture that is constantly drowning in blame and fear will see the outside world as a threat. It will also turn in on itself, believing that nowhere is safe. This is where the resistance to change gains strength, and inevitable where creativity dies.
For it is often change that offers us the greatest opportunities to unleash our creativity. How leaders accept change and work with it inside their business is the difference to a culture driven by fear, and one that can transform every obstacle into a market opportunity, a chance to learn and grow, or a new way to meet the needs of the people your business serves.
In our work supporting leaders to confidently grow their business we use coaching to build capacity to manage pushback. Here are a few of my favourite ways for leaders to respond to the inevitable pushback that comes from growth:
Pushback: “The situation is terrible”
Managing pushback: Curiosity
One of the most powerful coaching tools I’ve learned is the statement “That’s interesting”. Two words that offer an instant perspective — curiosity without judgement. No situation is good or bad, no event a crisis, no failure requires blame.
Rather than reacting to a problem when it presents, offer up the response “that’s interesting” to the situation. Give space to the team (or to yourself) to bring curiosity to what has happened. Can you observe the challenge without creating a drama or story around it? What do you see when you look at a challenge this way?
Pushback: “We have limited options”
Managing pushback: Seeing infinite possibility
When people feel that change is happening to them, they often believe they have lost control and the world becomes binary. Yes or no, this choice or that. “We already tried that and it didn’t work” is pushback we’ve all heard before. Leaders can spark creativity by empowering teams to see the challenge as an opportunity, opening up to the many different choices available to them.
Building this skill can even be done through retrospective learning. When something goes wrong, rather than ask why a team performed a certain way, have them consider three ways they could have approached the situation differently. This builds the habit to get out of a mindset of limited choices.
Pushback: “No time, no money, not enough skill”
Managing pushback: Abundance
“Resourcing” is a coaching term that more leaders should learn (and it doesn’t mean hiring more people!). It involves helping the client to see that they have everything they already need to be successful — they just have to tap into it and channel it effectively.
Team members who push back around not having enough time or money to solve problems believe that it is not possible to get to their goal with what they have in front of them. Leaders can work with this by exploring what other elements the team is abundantly “fuelled” with — experience, expertise, wisdom, connections — that will help them overcome the obstacle.
Pushback: “The challenge is too big”
Managing pushback: Milestones
Any challenge can feel insurmountable if we can’t break it down into achievable steps. Sometimes you need to see the big picture, other times you need to zoom in closer. Having teams set themselves smaller, achievable milestones that clearly connect to the overarching goal helps to create momentum.
Leaders who are skilled at communicating at different levels of context help people to see they can reach smaller goals that add up to a worthwhile journey.
Pushback: “Why are we doing this?”
Managing pushback: Payback
Knowing what the return on effort will be helps keep us motivated. Here I am not suggesting a carrot + stick reward approach, but rather for teams and individuals to be able to point directly to what they and the business get out of the change. Does it make work easier? More rewarding? Give new opportunities for personal and business growth? Offer up more responsibility and chances to learn?
Stressing that payback comes throughout the journey, not just at the end, is also important. You might consider reframing any changes as part of how you grow — to remind teams that change is not something that is being done to them, but a journey of success that they are in control of.
Have a “pushback” challenge in your business? Leave a comment and get the conversation going.
