From "Resistance is Everywhere" to "Resistance is Futile": Helpful Hints for Leading Change
By Rosabeth Moss Kanter, rkanter@hbs.edu.

In public education today, the imperative to "Change!" surrounds leaders. We hear it on the lips of candidates for schools boards, in the suggestions of activist parent groups, or on the editorial pages of local newspapers.

It's easy for them to demand change, right? You're the one who will have to lead it. And meanwhile, you know that resistance is everywhere. Inside school buildings, the reaction to outside pressure is often pretty defensive (especially on the part of some teachers who are more comfortable with traditional ways and whose union contract protects them from change).

Change is a loaded word that evokes strong emotions. Those emotions are often negative - but not always. It's your job as a leader to minimize resistance and maximize commitment to change. In short, you have to move the system from "resistance is everywhere" to "resistance is futile." The goal is to make any particular change journey seem so natural and exciting that people want to go on it.

Start by noting one of the common characteristics of the way all of us (myself included) respond to the idea of change. Change is always a threat when done to me; it can be an opportunity when done by me.

People hate change when it is someone else's plan, when it is imposed on them, when they are told what to do and exactly how they must do it, when they are threatened with punishment if they don't do it.

People love change when it is shaped by them, when they are in control of it, when it is their chance to make a difference. In fact, then they don't even call it "change" - it's a project, a venture, a dream come to life. It's their passion turned into a professional pursuit.

That suggests two helpful hints for leaders proposing changes.
Discover the things your people really care about, and see how the change can connect with their goals. That means making sure to know more about people than simply their teaching assignment or organizational role, and to conducts lots of conversations about hopes and aspirations.

Present broad goals and general outlines, and find ways for the rest of the people to shape the details. Even if it's your idea or the change is a mandatory district requirement, there are often some open areas in which people can participate in defining the change. Even small items can make people feel that they have ownership of the change and are still in control.

Another reason change gets a negative reputation is that any initiative proposed by one person or group can disrupts on-going efforts and projects by other groups that are also designed to make improvements. I've heard a big complaint among effective primary and secondary school principals who are not by nature complainers. They are on course to implement a promising program in their school with proven potential to raise student achievement and provide a more positive motivational climate, and overnight a new agenda is imposed on them by the central administration without regard for things they have underway. (Or even worse, a new superintendent arrives with a different agenda, not only disrupting but potentially eliminating their promising program).

These ripple effects are also among the classic reasons people resist change. They might like the idea you're putting forward, they might even want to see it happen soon. But they can't drop everything else - particular the important work you might have asked them to do a while ago. So consider using helpful hint #3:

Find out what else is going on, and how close it is to completion, before rushing into a major new initiative. Leave room in the implementation of the change for local differences.

Remember something else about the reactions people have to change. Everyone knows that change is easy to say and hard to do, and that there are many potholes on the road to successful change. The Chinese pictographic symbol for change reflects this; it contains both danger and opportunity. That suggests the next helpful hint:

Don't oversell the opportunities while downplaying the dangers. No one will believe you anyway. Pep talks that don't acknowledge the hard work people are about to do will backfire. It's better to anticipate the problems and difficulties and tell people that you will support them through all of it, while praising them (if not rewarding them) for their extra efforts.

Anticipating the sources of resistance to change before you set goals or make announcements is a very good idea. And while you're at it, you might want to make sure that you load the dice to ensure that the people around you are likely to become champions and cheerleaders for change.

You can do this in two ways, by selecting the right people and by creating the right culture. It always helps to recruit people for attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors as well as technical skills. So if you have a choice, select people who can do the job while believing in progress and improvement. Better yet, involve people in regular discussions about change. Organizations in which people are actively engaged in discussions about improvements and are given a chance to be part of projects will show less resistance and more acceptance of change.

--Rosabeth Moss Kanter holds a chaired professorship at Harvard Business School and is author or co-author of 16 books, including her latest bestseller, Confidence: How Winning Streaks & Losing Streaks Begin & End, recently published by Crown. Find her frameworks for leadership in public education, developed with Dr. Barry Stein of Goodmeasure Inc., at www.reinventingeducation.org.
© Copyright 2005 by Rosabeth Moss Kanter. All rights reserved.



Other articles in this edition:
Promising Approaches: Partnering to Promote Pre-K
Leading to Change with the Change Toolkit