Points of Resistance: 3 Critical Steps to Overcome it
No one likes change … Not true.
Increasing efficiency, changing models of care, new funding models, new roles. It doesn’t matter how you look at it – change is an inherent part of healthcare – and it is exhausting. I hear people saying: “Just let us go on with our job and we wouldn’t need to change anything.” Not true. Things can always be done better. There is always new evidence that needs to be integrated into our realities – let’s face it we will never reach perfect – but the human conditions demands that we continue to try.
But there is ALWAYs resistance because, we are told, “Everyone hates change!” Again – not true.
I love change. I change all the time. I get bored if things are not changing. Well, I’ll let you in on a secret… “I like change when I’m instigating it.”
Go try changing something without me intimately and actively engaged in the decision to change and I will resist as well. In fact, I might be your biggest ‘resister’! But WHY!
Why do people resist change?
They resist change because they are attached to something in their current reality. There is something there that they are completely attached to and by changing they give it up. It could be that they are attached to their current reality because they created, so you wanting to change it might make them feel somehow wrong or stupid or seem that you are criticizing them.
So what are the 3 Critical Steps to overcome resistance from attachment
- Help them to detach themselves from their current reality. They’ve sufficiently invested in it so they will defend it. Part of the reason people don’t move forward is because somehow they are attached to their current situation and your job as a manager or a leader is to understand what’s keeping them there. What’s keeping them stuck? What it is about their current reality that they are attached to and what can you do to make the future, vision or what you are proposing more compelling.
- Get them to paint the vision of the future. Let them define the future vision so that they can see themselves in it. This way, they become a bit more attached to the future. Having them look more closely at the current reality and engaging them in the critical analysis of it will let them realize that it can be improved. Creating a vision where they can see themselves in that is compelling, interesting and exciting critical.
- Give them ownership of the way to get there. Engage them in identifying what are the things they need to do, the strategies they need to do to go from their current reality to a better future; what do they need to do to fill the gap? They can identify the problems and contribute ideas to move forward into the vision
Let me know what your big change challenges are and I’ll share some ideas, strategies and advise that I know have worked.
To get some more tips download our ebook which tells you about the 15 steps to Managing Change which we think are critically important.
