The last months have brought a great change in our lives. Much of what was routine and self-evident became inaccessible, so there was a need for quick adjustment to a different pace of life, work, a different approach to relationships, and much better self-control. Many of us have pushed the limits of saturation not only in terms of using platforms such as Zoom or Skype, but also the limits of interactions with others, now too far or maybe too close, and those of inventiveness and creativity to continue our activities. In the absence of the linearity of previous daily life, here we are in a situation where most people face resistance to change.
How do you recognize the resistance to change?
When the change is not at a large-scale, but only superficial, it occurs naturally, slowly, by itself. We thus adapt to a new position within the same company, to the addition of a new task, to a new course that takes us half an hour a day, to waking up a quarter of an hour earlier in the morning or to a kilogram less on the abdominal area.
But when changes are high-impact and require a radical transformation in behavior or mentality, these no longer have time to occur gradually, but require an effort first to reflect on oneself and the new necessities and then one of awareness and the elaboration of the steps that must be taken for the change to really take place.
Here are the 12 signs that indicate a resistance to change:
- Rejection of new tasks
The preference for the comfort zone is a common human trait. We prefer the warmth and familiarity of the known area in exchange for exploring new possibilities and ways of action and thinking. Then we tend to see in the new tasks or needs only disadvantages instead of looking at the benefits
This can be expressed, for example, by a reluctance to thoroughly learn a new program or useful application or to prepare a new online presentation for students as a teacher, when the graphs show that only 10% of them have read the materials posted so far.
Rejection of new tasks has a mental, decisional component but is most often accompanied by physical symptoms of stress such as:
- sleep disorders;
- loss of appetite or excessive, compulsive eating;
- non-fulfillment of service tasks or usual household chores;
- a permanent state of worry, the feeling that the earth is running away from under your feet;
- difficulty concentrating;
- anger;
- irritability;
- the tendency to leave everything behind, to run away;
- lack of power or others that significantly influence both the functioning of the body as a whole and the behavior, emotion management or cognition.
These symptoms are often used as an excuse to reject new tasks.
The solution to eliminate the rejection of new tasks is to divide that task into sub-stages and reward us after completing each of them. Thus, a difficult task becomes a succession of small stages in which we will feel rewarded for our effort.
- Fear of the unknown and fear of losing safety
This is one of the main reasons for resistance to change, being also a common human trait. We like what is known and we know how to manage it. Habits, small daily rituals give us a feeling of stability and social anchorage. The fact that you drink your tea or coffee in the morning in a state of peace gives you a state of comfort, safety, and stability. Thousands of years ago, man did not have the same comfort, being always with his ears pricked up to notice any signal of a possible attack. He did not know from which side he could be attacked by a beast, so he was always on the lookout. Nowadays, the sources of stress are different, although the stress level has not necessarily decreased. As a result, the tendency to maintain what is known is justified.
During the current crisis, the unknown comes precisely through the small virus whose image we see on all channels. The ball with antennae turns out to be a monster, and we learned about the "monsters" even before the Stone Age that they are to be feared. Therefore, adapting to the context created by the "monster" can meet resistance precisely because of the fear of the unknown and the fear of losing safety.
The solution to eliminating the fear of the unknown and the fear of losing safety is documenting the subject of change. When you have an overview of the situation or even just a few benchmarks, the orientation and structuring of the solution are much easier.
- Absenteeism
On both organizational and individual levels, absenteeism expresses a decrease in interest towards the new and original due to resistance to change. If in a company employees are on sick-leave (in the absence of a real illness) to an alarming extent, this could be an indication of not adapting to an internal change expressed by a postponement of the confrontation with that need. A current example in this regard is the case of some local companies that are trying to bring employees out of technical unemployment back to work, organizing the activity in several teams so as to respect the necessary social distancing and security, face the refusal of people to resume activity. Surprising, isn't it? Because we usually think that we cannot wait to continue our work.
Individually, absenteeism is expressed through procrastination and apathy. Postponing housework for later or tomorrow in favor of trivial, unnecessary activities such as endless computer games or unlimited TV series indicates this resistance to change.
The recommendation of sub-steps is also a solution for this sign of resistance to change. It is just that here the emphasis will be more on the pleasure of going through a small sub-stage rewarded at the end, rather than on its originality.
- Not understanding the need for change
Currently, when we do not understand the need for change, we oppose it. Within the organization in which certain processes have been carried out in a certain way for 10 years, employees can resist the change of processes, precisely because the activity has gone well so far and the need for change is not understood.
Likewise, individually, we tend to maintain everything that is in our lives, even if it is not necessarily particularly good, according to the well-known Romanian principle "bad with bad, but worse without bad". At present, those who have this resistance to change are passively waiting for the period of social distancing to pass to return to the old habits, not understanding the real, major, and irreversible worldwide change.
Knowing the reason for the necessary change is the biggest asset in eliminating the misunderstanding of the need for this change. If you find out through a thorough documentation what worked for others who have faced the same problem, you already have a number of ideas for solving it and you can start to find the one that will work best for you.
- Reducing efficiency
The analysis of performance indicators is immensely helpful here. But not only at the organizational level, but also individually.
Indeed, current macroeconomic changes could not have had the effect of increasing productivity, but at the micro-level, a major decrease in productivity and efficiency of the individual is a sign of resistance to change. Although most people continue their work in isolation, some lose a lot of time, for example, staying maybe even more hours a day in front of the monitor or on the phone than before. This procrastination in carrying out tasks becomes a vicious circle that generates delays and an inevitable state of discomfort, if not depression.
Prioritizing stages and limiting distraction is the key here. The written list of priorities always kept in sight and the ticking of the completed stages has the effect of following a thoroughly prepared route and gives direction and stability.
- Poor communication
If we were used to working in a team, visiting clients, and organizing events, now all this had to be done mostly through the Internet. Communication in the virtual environment has brought with it new challenges to the detriment of direct, face-to-face communication, in which the interlocutors not only see each other from head to toe but can also hand over a file or a cup of tea. Such interaction may seem insignificant, but the latest studies of the effects of the Internet on communication conducted after the outbreak of the pandemic indicate the emergence of a new dimension in communication, and also a certain fragmentation of attention in virtual relationships. We usually interact with different groups of people in different spaces and settings, while now all these interactions have the same way of expression, by the same means, thus leading to a continuous effort which after this long period of isolation influences the quality of communication.
Adapting to change in this situation would be one in which, despite external limitations, we manage to deepen communication, without breaking down or overworking ourselves.
Communication itself has many aspects and facets, and the first step in deepening it is to find common features with others and sharing.
- Lack of confidence
The likelihood that a company's employees will show resistance to change is remarkably high when they do not trust that they or the company can handle the change. At the individual level, self-confidence is particularly important for new beginnings. Low self-confidence will lead to the tendency to avoid change, which is new.
There are many ways to build confidence. The handiest is the elimination or at least the avoidance of thoughts that are against the change or depreciating and to avoid criticism and self-criticism.
- Lack of adoption of new directions
In an organization, this feature of resistance to change can be noticed when new procedures are introduced to increase productivity or costs are reduced and new measures are adopted very slowly. If at the company level the established measures can really be evaluated by the following balance sheet, at the individual level the lack of an external reference can easily lead to an attitude expressed through words like: it works like this, let it pass, without adopting new measures.
The great advantage that the Internet offered us during this period is that it facilitated our continuation of activities, communication, and information. In the last month, we saw a real explosion of courses and valuable materials on the web. Most of them have as subject what can be done, studied, practiced, initiated, developed in this period of crisis. But the number of those who are really interested in putting these in practice is surprisingly small. The cause is the resistance to change expressed by this trait.
Adopting new directions is greatly facilitated by knowing the valences and the need for change. If you really understand that change is necessary, and you know or just intuit the implications then the new directions will be much easier to adopt.
- Low morale
The lack of motivation in taking over new responsibilities or projects, of developing new ideas are indications of this feature in employees within a company. Individually, when this trait is expressed, it can be seen as a lack of interest in anything, a state of saturation, nausea, even depression.
Having an image of ourselves at the end of change helps us the most. Have you thought about doing this exercise by visualizing yourself as clearly as possible at the end of this change? Feel and clarify all the details of this image. Seeing yourself at the end of the road is like a magnet that draws you to it and an engine of motivation to really get there.
- Impossibility to make decisions
Prior to making decisions, there is an analytical process of thinking, which is blocked when this resistance to change occurs leading to a sort of decision paralysis.
Deciding means choosing from a multitude of solutions the one we currently consider to be the most appropriate. When the problem we face is a complex one or simply goes beyond our previous experience, and we have a resistance to change, the unknown involved in it cannot yet be structured or cataloged and paralyzes the thought process. Thus, the decision can no longer be made.
Examples from the current period would be the absence of decisions on actions or approaches in the near future, adapted to the current context.
Taking any decision involves taking steps. Sometimes these steps are very quick, other times these require introspection, study, and analysis. The first step always is to identify the situation you need to resolve and it is immediately followed by the necessary documentation to have all the relevant information related to the subject in question, identifying alternatives, analyzing them, and then action follows.
- Changes in the status quo
Dealing with the idea that it could be worse after the change can increase resistance to change. There are many examples that can be listed here: from the employee put in the situation of taking over many more tasks that could suffocate him, to the one who prefers to remain in a toxic relationship or an unhappy marriage because of the fear of changing status quo.
The unknown aspect of change can often receive a terrifying mask when we are resistant to change and fear changes in the status quo. But what if we gave it the face of an adventure that we start exactly as in a mountain ascent in which you do not want to reach the peak first, but you only intend to explore the path, step by step. Seeing the adventure and exploring the future status is the most important thing here.
- Discontent
Another sign of resistance to change is increasing dissatisfaction. Employees secretly complain and gossip about their superiors, neighbors gossip about new residents who bring with them a change through their presence or their habits, and nowadays we express dissatisfaction with TV programs, articles, books, considering that they are not all so bleak when paradigm shifts are presented worldwide.
Being another common human trait, dissatisfaction and gossip can be eradicated primarily through open, sincere, and direct discussions about change. When you are knowledgeable and are acquainted with all the facets of the change needed, you reduce resistance to it.
Resistance to change is therefore expressed by several signs that need to be decrypted before the actual implementation of a change. Their detailed knowledge, doubled by observing the individual way in which they express themselves in us, as well as the amplitude they have, the analysis of change, and its necessity will contribute to a reduction, even removal of resistance to change.
I invite you to watch the video I have prepared for you on how to reduce and eliminate resistance to change.
If you need help and guidance to reduce or eliminate your resistance to change in any field, contact me!
