Recognizing the Need for Change

The drivers for change

Diagnosing the need and readiness
for change
Understanding resistance to change

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 The Drivers for Change
• The OD Practitioner needs to establish their role as a
change agent during the data collection phase by
clarifying:
– Who am I?
– Why am I here and what am I doing?
– Who do I work for?
– What do I want from you and why?
– How will I protect your confidentiality?
– Who will have access to the data?
– What’s in it for you?
– Can I be trusted?
• Think about what you want to know before you
would participate. What feelings would you have?
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 Diagnosing the need and readiness
for change
• Discovery, dialogue, analysis,
interpretation: all different terms
for describing “what’s going on
here”
• An ongoing process of making
sense of the data
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 Diagnosis
• Data Analysis: Deductive, Inductive, and
Statistical
• Deductive: Analysis conducted generally using a model
such as the Burke-Litwin, Nadler-Tushman, or Weisbord
models, sorting data into preexisting categories
• Inductive: Analysis conducted developing categories
from the data, using the analysts’ own labels
• Statistical: Analysis conducted using established
statistical tests and techniques, often with the
assistance of computer software

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Deductive Analysis Example Using
Weisbord’s Six Box Model
• Relationships
– “All the people I deal with are intelligent, willing to
work together” “All of us consciously see ourselves as
one team.” “There is a healthy tension between
global and regional teams; we work very well.”
• Leadership
– “Sometimes problems with communication and
timing with global partners. Sometimes global
partners communicate something, but it gets lost in
the day to day shuffle of everything going on.” “Cross
team communication could work a bit better.”

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 Deductive Analysis Example Using
Weisbord’s Six Box Model
• Helpful Mechanisms
– “We have moved away from the old systems and
moved into the new models.” “Quality of our
reporting technology has improved immensely.”
“Every week we’re adding new technical
capability
• Purposes
– “The new service model is going to impact the
way that the business is structured; a lot more of
our delivery will be done remotely.”
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Inductive Analysis
• Identifies key themes from the data
– More than one comment about an idea;
repeated patterns
• The practitioner selects the language
• Common mistakes include
– Too many categories (unwieldy, confusing)
– Too few categories (too general: “leadership,”
“communication”)
• Advice: Develop headlines with supporting quotes

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 Inductive Example:
Goal, Role Alignment and Coordination
• Team members agree that coordination is required for goal
achievement.
– “We’re joined at the hip on whether I can meet my goals.”
“We all rely on each other to make the pieces work.”
• Some team members see misaligned or misunderstood
priorities, but this is not universal.
– “I’ve never sensed that there’s an issue with alignment or
understanding what the priorities are.”
– “Do we disagree on what the priorities are? Absolutely.”
“Having goals at the top that are aligned, I think we do, but
how do those cascade among the groups and how do we
have shared ownership of our common goals?”
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 Inductive Example:
Goal, Role Alignment and Coordination

• There is not a shared understanding of what

happens within groups.
– “I don’t fully know what the people on [X’s]
team are supposed to be doing.” “We don’t
always know who to contact.” “I don’t know
who in [Y’s team] is assigned to [area].” “The
answer we get back is ‘not my job.’ All the
people on my team are doing their job.”
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 Inductive Example:
Goal, Role Alignment and Coordination

• There are opportunities for the team to achieve

better results.
– “It feels like we could push the envelope right now.” “I
would like to see us take some of the stuff that we
continually fail on and tackle them one by one.” “We
have been consistently not hitting goals for a while, at
some point you have to be able to solve that problem.
What do you do to get out of that hole?” “We’re
missing an opportunity to collaborate in positive ways
to do great things.”
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 Giving Feedback: Preparation
• Frame the data
• Perceptions, concerns
• Identify repeated themes
• What to present: “Features of Energizing
Data”
• Relevant to the problem
• Influenceable or manageable: Issues the
client can change, wants to change

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Giving Feedback: Preparation
• Descriptive rather than evaluative
• Selective: Narrow, not broad
• Sufficient and specific:
“Communication” versus “meetings get
off topic”
• Layers of the problem
• How it is presented, how others/client
contribute, where it does/does not
happen

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Giving Feedback: The Meeting
• Remind the client of the contract and
purpose of the data gathering
• Acknowledge and confirm the positive
data
• Be specific (use examples)
• Avoid blame, state issues and facts
• Avoid projecting your own feelings
• Confront the tough issues

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 Giving Feedback: The Meeting
• Watch your language: “You are,” “Why do you..?”
• Evaluative: weak, strong, indecisive,
incompetent…
• Safer: Effective, ineffective, working, not working
• Listen, allow the client to process
• Be willing to change the interpretation…to some
extent
• What client will accept, resist
• Data or interpretation could be wrong
• Come to agreement on the meaning of the data
and next steps: engage the client to take action

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Understanding Resistance to
Change

Why Resistance Occurs

Sources of Resistance to Change
Managerial Responses to Resistance
Overcoming Resistance to Change
Organizational Culture

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 Resistance
• Resistance is a label we apply from our own
frame of reference.
• Change agents can contribute to the very
resistance they are trying to avoid.
• Resistance has positive benefits.
– Can clarify purpose
– Keeps the change conversation going
– Can enhance the quality of the change
– Can provide additional data
– Can build commitment

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 Why resistance occurs
• Change in the status quo
• Increased fear and anxiety about the
consequences of change – real or perceived
• Altering of the way people see the world and
calling into question their values & rationality
• Misunderstanding of the change itself
• Mistrust of those leading the change

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 Resistance: Why, and What to Do

• Why do clients resist?

– In the problem or solution, there is
some difficult reality that the client
has had a hard time seeing and
confronting.
– Much resistance has as its core
either control or vulnerability.
– “No, I do not choose to go forward”
is not resistance.
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 Resistance: Why, and What to Do
• The skill in dealing with resistance is to
– Be able to identify when resistance is
taking place
– View resistance as a natural process and
a sign that you are on target
– Support the client in expressing the
resistance directly
– Not take the expression of the
resistance personally or as an attack on
you or your competence
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 Sources of Resistance to Change
• Reluctance to lose control
• Cognitive rigidity
• Lack of psychological resilience
• Intolerance to the adjustment period involved
in change
• Preference for low levels of stimulation and
novelty
• Reluctance to give up old habits
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Dealing With Resistance
• 1. Identify in your own mind what form
the resistance is taking. The skill is to pick
up the cues from the client and then, in
your head, to put some words on what
you see happening.
• 2. State, in a neutral, nonpunishing way,
the form the resistance is taking. This is
called naming the resistance. The skill is to
find the neutral language.
• 3. Be quiet. Let the client respond to your
statement about the resistance.
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 Managerial Responses to Resistance
• Managers employ a variety of strategies to deal with
resistance:
– Empathy and support for peoples’ responses
– Clear and effective communication about the change
– Ensure the involvement and participation of the maximum
number of people in the organization and also key external
stakeholders where relevant
• They need to be able to identify excessive change
• Training is an important element in overcoming
resistance to change
• When do you consider resistance to change at work
justified and when is it not? Why do you think this?
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 Resistance (Block, 2000)
• Give me more • Silence
detail
• Intellectualizing
• Flood you with
detail • Moralizing
• Time • Compliance
• Impracticality • Methodology
• I’m not surprised
• Pressing for
• Attack
solutions
• Confusion

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 Cooke’s (2009) ‘Reasons Why’ List
• Employees may know something that you do not know, which
may, in fact, make their resistance not only understandable but
even correct
• People who are happy with the status quo will fight to protect
it
• If they can see no clear path between their current state and
the new position then they cannot begin to move forwards
• If they do not believe they have the necessary skills to be
successful in the new order or are heavily invested in the
current order then again they will resist
• They need to have clear and credible role models of the new
behaviors
• They need to understand why the change is in their interests
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 Overcoming Resistance to Change
• Education and communication
– This may need to be stratified through the organization depending on department need,
group norms within those departments and the capabilities of internal people to facilitate
this.
• Participation & involvement of individuals & groups
– Even if change agents think they have all the answers, organization member involvement
will minimize resistance
• Facilitation of support
– Participation and involvement of individuals and groups will assist in identifying which
groups need priority support
• Negotiation and agreement
– This may be needed if feedback from organization members indicates the change plan is
not feasible of is flawed
• Manipulation and co-option
– This can be used if there are still people resisting the change and the change is systems-
driven.
• Explicit and implicit coercion
– Avoid this approach at all costs unless there is the potential of physical risk for employees
who do not adapt to the change.
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 Organizational Culture
Economic
Cultural Context Development
• Context orientation
• Power distance • Subsistence
• Uncertainty economies
avoidance • Industrializing
• Achievement economies
orientation • Industrial
• Individualism economies
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 Cultural Context
• Based on the work of Geert Hofstede, Michael
Bond and others, it is now recognized that ethnic
cultural diversity has a significant impact on
organizational culture
• Five important dimension have been identified
as:
– Context orientation
– Power distance
– Uncertainty avoidance
– Achievement orientation
– Individualism
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 Level of Economic Development
• It is now known that the success of planned
change approaches are dependent on the level of
industrialization and economic development in
the country where the organization operates
• Three levels of economic development have been
identified as:
– Subsistence economies
– Industrializing economies
– Industrialized economies
• Research now shows that planned organizational
change will have only limited success in some
economic contexts 28
How do Culture and Economic Development
Affect the OD Professional?

• Subsistence economies offer little opportunity

but some industrializing and industrialized
economies favor planned change approaches
• Cultural context has significant impact on the
success of a planned change intervention.
• There is no ‘one size fits all’ OD approach in a
world that is rapidly economically globalizing

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 Summary
• Resistance and organizational culture impact
significantly on the potential success of a planned
change strategy
• Resistance to organizational change takes many
forms
• Resistance is not yet well-understood
• Management uses a variety of strategies to respond
to, and overcome, resistance
• Ethnic cultural context and level of economic
development, when considered together, affect the
effectiveness of the OD Professional
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