Jan Hills looks at the reasons why people can be resistant to change, and discusses how to work around this to complete a successful change project.

Whoever first claimed that ‘starting is half the job done’ has probably never had to guide a business through a change process. Change processes have a habit of going wrong, and can do so at any stage. Pretty much every company has seen new structures causing uproar, new management tools discarded and forgotten, abandoned training initiatives and proposed cultural changes lost in the daily pressures of working life… the list goes on.

Despite this, I have also seen many examples of successful projects and I’ve noticed several key elements that make a successful change programme. Here are the basic elements to keep at the front of your mind:

Tell people early on why the changes are happening. If people can understand the reasoning for the changes, they will be more willing to endorse them.

Explain not only why the changes are happening for the business, but also the affects they will have on the individual. For change to be successful, people need to see how it will benefit them.

At the same time as telling people what is changing, let people know what isn’t. By highlighting the things that will stay the same, it keeps the changes in perspective and helps to stop people overreacting to them.

Don’t rely on overly formal, top down communications to inform people of what is going on. Talk to people at all levels of the business early to get buy-in for the changes. If people get talking positively about the changes from the beginning, they are more likely to be effective.

I have found that many change processes largely focus on the when, the how and the why but forget to consider the individuals motivations, beliefs, values and how they identify with the business.

These more personal factors can have a large impact on the effectiveness of a change programme and the levels of resistance to those changes.

For example, a person might identify with one specific role or task and use this as an internal marker for their own success. If this role or task is then given to a different person during a restructure, then they may feel they have lost part of their identity within the company – their sense of role within the organisation.

To avoid this, you need to make sure that people understand and feel comfortable with their new roles and can clearly see how they can become successful following the changes.

But, even with the best intentions, change programmes can fizzle out. Resistance to change is often, in fact, a resistance to change old habits and many change programmes are met with the response “but this is how we’ve always done things”.

A recent article by Woods and Neal from Duke University looked at habits and how to go about changing them. They explain that habits are a very important part of our lives and that roughly 45% of what we do in a day is habitual; repeated in the same location at the same time. Initially, I found this statistic surprising, but after thinking about what you do each day, it soon adds up.

Habits are not necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes they can block or make us more resistant to change, regardless of the benefits that those changes might bring. But how do you break those habits? It’s all about reframing the goal and changing perspectives. So here are some tips to help you:

Change the focus so people are thinking about the new tasks or procedures rather than what they are no longer doing. For example, if the change programme involves a new task, prepare a training scheme that will not only get them thinking about why the new task has been implemented but will also make them feel more confident that they can be successful with this new role.

Habits are triggered by ‘cues’ or rituals and by changing these it will help make a new habit or break an old one. For example, if the meeting to assess progress and discuss current projects always used to be held at a certain time or on a certain day or maybe in a certain place, changing that schedule or venue will help to disassociate the meeting with past projects and help people to focus on the new.

Once the changes are being implemented, make sure that this doesn’t mark the end of the change programme. Reward people for making the successful changes so it becomes a positive element of their work. Also keep reminding people why the changes are important to the company and how they themselves can benefit from them.

In my experience, change will only occur if businesses actually identify with the goals that a change is trying to achieve, and most importantly, if they make the achievement of these goals something of personal importance.

Corporate change is in fact a combination of all the individuals in the business making a shift; it must work from the bottom up, not just from the top down. People also need time to adjust to the changes, to form new habits and be able to feel confident that they can succeed in the new challenges being set for them. Woods and Neal believe that a new habit takes 30 days to form, so keep it up and don’t let the good intentions fizzle out.

Jan Hills is from HR With Guts.