How to Overcome Resistance to Change
Stop fighting resistance and promote participation instead
The CEO of a fast-growing tech company just mandated four days in office, up from two. The stated goal: "Strengthen culture and team collaboration." Within 48 hours, he received pushback from every department.
When he called me, his diagnosis was swift: "People have gotten lazy working from home. They're resisting change."
However, when my team interviewed employees, we discovered the real story. Many now must spend four hours daily commuting—time previously used for focused work. Meanwhile, they sat in cubicles for 90% of their day, taking video calls with clients and colleagues from other locations. The same meetings, the same tasks, just with added commute time and frustration.
Instead of fixating on resistance, we reframed the conversation: "How might we improve team collaboration?" We focused on the goal, not the remote work policy.
The solution emerged quickly: Work at the office for at least two days a week, but make them count. Each team would select specific days so everyone would be present to solve problems together or tackle complex decisions. They evaluated the six modes of collaboration to define which tasks should stay remote and which should be in person. For example, external video calls should be made from home, not when they’re supposed to collaborate with their teammates.
They also established metrics to actually measure collaboration and culture—something they lacked previously. Their original assessment of whether remote work was hurting the company was based entirely on assumptions, not data.
The pushback wasn't the problem. It was the solution.
Every time you hit resistance, you face two choices: Fuel the fire or decode the signal. What is resistance trying to tell you? Maybe people aren’t the problem; maybe your strategy is.
People Don't Resist Change—They Resist Stupid Plans
When change fails, managers quickly jump to blaming people.
This reaction has become so automatic that no one questions it. If most change initiatives fail, continuing to blame people clearly isn't working. Maybe we're solving the wrong problem.
Employees weren’t always seen as the culprits. Originally, resistance to change was considered a systems issue.
Kurt Lewin, the German psychologist credited with resistance theory, defined it as a systems phenomenon, not a psychological one. Resistance could emerge anywhere in the organization—processes, structures, culture.
But somewhere along the way, some experts began framing it as a character flaw. What was initially understood as organizational friction became rebranded as boycotting, stubbornness, close-mindedness, or even weakness. Several authors distorted Lewin’s research, characterizing resistance as “behavior which is intended to protect an individual from the effects of real or imagined change.”
This shift produced devastating consequences. Managers now view people's “inherent resistance to change” as the problem and want to educate or rewire them. Not surprisingly, most change approaches rely on coercion or manipulation rather than genuine participation. They treat employees as an enemy to conquer rather than partners to learn from.
“People don’t resist change. They resist being changed.” –Peter Senge
As Eric Dent and Susan Galloway Goldberg explained in this paper, misinterpretation and management arrogance have fundamentally distorted our understanding of resistance to change. We got the original concept wrong. Humans are more adaptable than we think. People don’t resist change itself—they resist being forced to change. For change to stick, research shows it has to be intentional and internally motivated rather than imposed from the outside.
What if we go back to basics? Instead of blaming people, what if we treat resistance as a signal? Let’s examine what it’s telling you about your system.
Resistance Is a Signal, Not a Problem
When organizations attempt significant change, employees often embrace the vision and want it to succeed. They're not the obstacle—poor execution is.
Tony Heath, a Lean Six Sigma consultant, suggests replacing the word "resistance" with "objection." The word "resistance" characterizes people who don't want to go along with our change plans, but those people deserve more credit than that.
Drawing from his background as a therapist, Heath says calling someone a "resistor" is pointless. This negative label hurts everyone. Blaming people gets us stuck—it divides rather than unites the organization.
Instead of saying "people resist change," think "people object to change."
Consider objections as your organization's early warning system. Instead of labeling people as problems, focus on understanding what they're actually objecting to.
People resist when they’re tired. Change adds more work to already busy teams. When people are exhausted, they simply can’t handle more demands. What seems like laziness is often just burnout.
Is your team already overloaded? Are you setting clear priorities or just piling on more tasks?
People resist being misled. Most change announcements focus on company benefits while ignoring how individuals are affected. Leaders talk collaboration, then implement systems that create friction and division. They talk efficiency while adding bureaucracy.
Is your change initiative delivering what you promised? Are the stated benefits actually materializing for the people doing the work?
People resist a lack of purpose. Employees need to understand not just what's changing, but why it matters to them personally. Company benefits don't motivate individuals—personal meaning does. Without a clear connection to their own development, change feels arbitrary.
Have you linked this initiative to something your people actually care about? What's in it for them beyond company success?
People resist being excluded. When decisions about their daily work happen behind closed doors, people feel like resources, not members. They push back when they're told what to do without having a say in how to do it.
Who was involved in the decision? Did the people who will actually implement it provide input?
People resist stupidity. Some initiatives truly lack logic. Pressure from the board or trying to appear innovative—like you're riding the latest trend wave—often leads to bad decisions. What looks like resistance is often common sense pushing back against flawed plans, pet projects, or the pursuit of shiny objects.
Does this change pass the common-sense test? If you were in their position, would you support this initiative?
Instead of fighting resistance, smart leaders treat it as a signal containing valuable information about what they need to improve or fix.
To be clear: Not every objection deserves accommodation. You'll always find people who are selfish, ill-intended, or simply don't want to do the hard work. But that's the exception, not the norm. Sometimes it's your plan that needs fixing; other times, you need to help people adapt rather than singling them out.
Five Ways to Transform Resistance Into Partnership
1. Reframe What You're Actually Seeing
Transforming how you view pushback—from problem to valuable feedback—begins with shifting your mental framework. Here are some examples of how you can reframe your response to resistance:
Instead of thinking: "People are resisting this change."
Ask yourself: "What are people actually objecting to?"
Instead of thinking: "They just don't want to adapt."
Ask yourself: "What would make this change worth embracing for them?"
Instead of thinking: "We need to overcome their resistance."
Ask yourself: “How can we overcome the objections by connecting to what’s in it for them?”
This isn't a play on words—reframing conversations is a powerful tool. Instead of trying to ignore or defeat resistance, you use it to your advantage. You don’t kill people’s passion; you redirect it.
2. Help People Navigate Uncertainty
Modern change happens in constant ambiguity. Rather than building a "culture of change," help your team navigate uncertainty as the new normal.
Most resistance stems from teams getting stuck in chaos—the zone where everything feels overwhelming and uncontrollable. They spend energy worrying about distant threats or complex forces beyond their influence.
The key is helping people distinguish between three zones: what's clear, what's confusing, and what's chaotic. Teams perform best when they focus on the confusion zone—areas they don't fully understand yet but can still influence and clarify through action.
When people can categorize their uncertainty, they stop resisting the unknown and start managing it.
3. Reframe the Loss Into a Win
Leaders focus on future gains, while employees worry about present losses. We all suffer from loss aversion—the tendency to prefer avoiding losses over acquiring equivalent gains.
Change often threatens status, expertise, relationships, or familiar routines. Don't minimize these concerns—reframe them as opportunities. Understand what's at stake for each person. Will the change affect someone's professional identity? Their position in the social hierarchy? Their sense of feeling valuable and valued?
Instead of minimizing these concerns, reframe the conversation. Position the change not as loss but as growth into something more valuable. Show people how their existing strengths will adapt and expand rather than become obsolete.
Most importantly, don't just focus on organizational benefits. Help people see how their personal evolution aligns with the broader transformation.
4. Present Change as Evolution, Not Addition
Most organizations aren't broken—they need amplification, not replacement. Rather than presenting new initiatives as something extra, connect them to what people already do well.
Instead of launching a separate AI initiative, integrate it into existing projects with similar goals. If your team is already working on process efficiency, connect how AI tools accelerate that work rather than creating a parallel effort.
Don't add to people's already overwhelming workload—show how change enhances work they take pride in. When people view change as a natural evolution of their current success rather than another burden, resistance transforms into curiosity.
The key is positioning: This isn't something new to learn on top of everything else but the evolution of what you're already doing well. Of course, this requires brutal prioritization.
5. Don’t Force Participation
The most effective strategy is counterintuitive: Make participation both voluntary and limited.
Mandatory initiatives reduce engagement. Unlimited participation isn't much better, despite what most leaders think. You don’t need to invite everyone but the right people. When you announce, "Anyone interested can join the innovation task force," it comes across as just another time-consuming committee unlikely to produce results.
Instead, create scarcity. Saying, “We have eight spots on this task force," completely transforms the dynamic. People suddenly want what feels exclusive. Limited participation signals importance and exclusivity rather than obligation.
Start with pilot programs where people apply rather than get assigned. Allow early adopters to demonstrate value instead of demanding universal compliance. Informal success stories from participants are more persuasive than any mandatory effort, no matter how good your campaign is.
The paradox is striking: The moment you stop forcing change and limit access to it, people start wanting in.
Turn Resistance into Momentum
Right now, somewhere in your organization, someone is objecting to a decision. Your response in the moment will determine whether you gain valuable intelligence or create an adversary.
Every time you label someone as "resistant," you miss an opportunity to improve your strategy. When you force compliance instead of rewarding participation, you actually feed the very resistance you're trying to eliminate.
The problem was never your people. They want change that makes sense, not just orders to follow. They need to be heard, not manipulated. They want to help build something better, not just be persuaded.
Stop fighting your people. Start challenging your assumptions.
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