Resistance in organizations: Theo Janssen

2 hours

NL, EN

Title: Resistance to change is perfectly normal!

I have more than twenty years of experience in guiding and managing (as far as possible) change processes. I have used all the methods available: Kotter, de Caluwé, BPR, Lean, etcetera. And when applying these methods, two things strike me: how fleeting the change achieved is and that it is mainly about removing resistance to the change. Not only is it my experience, everyone who supervises change processes recognizes this. Libraries full of books have been written about resistance to change. This seems to be the main reason for change. Sometimes it is advised to remove the resistance with brute force. Sometimes it is advised to do it with a soft hand. It is totally hip to let the change originate from below. Been there, done that. At first it gives very nice results, but at the first management layer (at the lower level), and certainly at the second layer, the change already ebbs away. And finally, if you observe after a somewhat longer period of time, there is nothing left of the change. Resistance' plays an important role here. And it is my observation that this resistance to change is completely justified. Not because we humans are against change. On the contrary. Our adaptability has made our species what we are today: top of the foodchain. Change is in our blood. But it's other reasons that make people shoot into the resistance to change. This lecture is about the 8 most important causes against change.

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