Tackling Change Resistance: A Helpful Tool

By Elise Bajohr, CPHQ

Who here likes change? Anyone?...Anyone?....

Sure, when it is beneficial and voluntarily chosen, change can be welcome. However, when it comes to organizations, workflows, and programs, change is often met with resistance. In terms of survival, humans are wired to interpret uncertainty as a threat. Fear of the unknown is common and old routines comfortable. Even when a system or process does not work well, most organizational or process changes encounter at least some people who are very resistant to change. Those individuals can set up as many roadblocks as possible (whether intentionally or not), delaying timelines and hindering the embeddedness of a new process or organizational culture. While this appears in everything from relationship break-ups to organizational mergers, today we are focusing on non-profit organizations and a tool with many uses: the Stakeholder Analysis and Resistance Tool.

Stakeholder Analysis

Many of you might be familiar with the Stakeholder Analysis, a four-quadrant tool where stakeholders are ranked from high to low power (y-axis) and high to low interest (x-axis). For those not familiar with this, a quick online search about managing change resistance in stakeholders usually has this tool at the top of the list.

This tool guides the actions of a project manager or leader during a change by helping you map the influence of members of the group by who has decision-making “power,” identifying the key interests of members, and providing a framework for managing risks. In this framework:

• High power/high interest individuals should be engaged actively and managed closely

• High power/ low interest individuals should be kept informed and satisfied

• Low power/high interest should be kept informed at a high level with their concerns included

• Low power/low interest only need to be monitored minimally

However, when you are dealing with a project with more complex and/or human dynamics, this tool can oversimplify relationships and fail to capture the flexible movement of individuals, groups, and organizations. That is where I often prefer a Stakeholder Analysis & Resistance Tool.

Stakeholder Analysis & Resistance Tool

A Stakeholder Analysis & Resistance Tool is more flexible, a living chart or spreadsheet that should only be used by the project manager or lead team for the change, not to be shared outside of the small lead group. It consists of categories across the top row and names of individuals/stakeholders down the first column.

There are general ideas for what to include in your categories, but I encourage adaptability when appropriate. For example, if you have a small group of stakeholders or a less complex dynamic, you might use a simplified version of this, while a more complex issue or group would benefit from more categories. Here is an example template of a robust Stakeholder Analysis & Resistance Tool:

Many humans are visual learners, therefore laying out and charting the reasons for resisting change (for example) can help you or the project management team identify common issues, highly individualized or personal issues, and facilitate brainstorming solutions or strategies to move forward together. There are a variety of questions you can include in this type of tool, such as: what is important to the stakeholder, what person can influence change in the stakeholder, how can the stakeholder contribute to the effort, how much impact does the stakeholder have, and how much influence does the stakeholder have?

While there is versatility in the categories, creating an action plan is a key final step to utilize this tool to navigate resistance to change. When prioritizing and ordering the steps in a strategy or action plan, I recommend considering the effort involved, time required, time needed, realistic expectations, and the individuals or groups unique needs and attributes.

Example: Clinical Documentation Requirement Change

A human-service organization provides therapeutic services. A new law is requiring a change to documentation and clinical assessment protocols. You are leading the team to usher in the change but have learned from past efforts that there will be resistance in some groups. This chart is an example of groups, instead of individuals and using the tool to plan the change in advance.

In the above example, using the tool at the very beginning of the process helped create an involved roll-out with the goal of supporting staff across multiple levels to a change to their workflows. While this example focuses on groups, this tool can be used for individuals who are specifically resisting change, and those who embrace it, to help you navigate specific situations. Using this tool can help you understand the interpersonal dynamics and glean lessons for future changes with the same group of individuals.

In Closing

Hopefully this article piqued your interest in adding the Stakeholder Analysis & Resistance Template to your toolbox for managing change resistance. This is not the only tool, nor the right tool, for everyone and every situation, but for those of you struggling with change resistance, I encourage you to try it out. Here at Bynes Consulting Group, we have a variety of tools at the ready for your individual needs and organizations. We love a challenge and please feel welcome to reach out with questions or ideas!