Mel: [00:00:00] Why are they resisting change? If this is a question you've been asked or you've asked yourself during a change, then you are not alone. When change is happening, there's always those people who think the greatest thing ever is their change, and everyone else will see how great it is and just get on with it.

But the reality couldn't be more different. While some people may come along for the ride, not everyone is going to get on board, and some people will actually move in the opposite direction actively. So when you are implementing change, how can you use communication to help drive it through and limit the resistance?

Well, that's what today's episode is all about Hello, friend, and welcome to today's episode of Less Chatter, More Matter: The Communications Podcast. I'm your host, Mel Loy, and I'm recording this episode on the lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people here in Meanjin, also known as Brisbane. And today [00:01:00] on the show, I'm tackling one of the biggest challenges about change and change communication.

How do we reduce resistance to change? It's the million-dollar question, and quite literally can be a million-dollar question when you are spending millions on a change project. The thing is, reducing resistance to change helps the business achieve its cost and strategic goals, so it is very important. And as change communicators, we play a big part in that.

But before we get to tactics, let's get to the psychology. There's a few things to consider here. Firstly, I'm not a huge fan of the term resistance, to be honest. I like to think of it more as either, A, feedback, or B, human nature playing out in real time, or C, a combination of both In terms of thinking of it as feedback, the question you really want to ask when people are showing resistance to change is, why?

Perhaps it's not that people are being deliberately obstinate, [00:02:00] but it could actually be something within your control. So maybe it's how the change was communicated, whether it made sense, whether it was clear, whether it's tangible, whether or not people feel valued and supported. Great change communicators stay curious.

The second consideration is basic human nature. There's a psychological term called reactance, which basically means that as humans, we hate being told what to do. There has been quite a bit of research on this, and typically, what researchers agree on is that reaction to change is dependent on a person's perception and assessment of how that change will impact them and how much autonomy they perceive to have in those situations.

So basically, if they think the change will be negative and that it's happening to them, not with them, then they are more likely to show reactance. Now, the good part is that communication can go some way towards preventing and addressing reactance when it [00:03:00] happens. And I say some way because, like I said before on the poddy, communication alone does not a happy change make.

If the change is just bad change, you can't put lipstick on a pig. And if leaders aren't willing to put in the work to have the curious conversations with their team members, make the change meaningful and relevant to them, take on feedback, et cetera, then comms won't be the magic wand. So while what I'll share next may not necessarily stem the tide of negativity, it can be one of the levers you can pull in conjunction with the other levers to help change happen more effectively and efficiently.

So here's five ways you can use your communication to help change happen. And the first one is plan for resistance, don't wait for it. If you go into change thinking that everything is going to run swimmingly because you have all your plans laid out, think again. In my twenty-plus years of working, I've never seen a single project [00:04:00] go to plan.

Now, some have just had little hiccups along the way, but others have had massive disruption that has blown the whole thing out of the water. When we are planning for change projects, there's often a part of the planning process where we look at the potential risks and issues and what our mitigation tactics will be.

What we often don't plan for is the fact that there will be people who don't like the change. It's not a matter of if, it's just a matter of who. Because humans are humans. They're not robots. They are all different. So understanding right from the start that you're going to have some audience members who straight up resist the change, others who may take a little bit longer to get on board, and others, again, who will jump at the opportunity, is critical to your planning This is where you need to think not of the mitigations, because you simply can't mitigate out human behaviour and human biology, but you need to think about how you will respond when you do find the resistance.

Now, like I said at the top [00:05:00] of the episode, firstly, remember to take the mindset that resistance is feedback. It is a valuable source of information if you stay curious. But secondly, if people do resist, and they will, how will you and the leaders in your organisation respond in that moment? Now, this is where your planning has to include some different scenarios for different potential responses to change, because we still want to get those people on board.

But we need to understand there is no one-size-fits-all approach. So in your change comms plan, include the fact that there will be people who are likely to show resistance to change, and then do a bit of brainstorming. Maybe you could even get your mate Claude or ChatGPT to help, and come up with as many reasons as possible why people might react in that way.

Then you can do more proactive communication work. So for example, your messages can acknowledge the potential points of resistance. Then you can do more proactive communication [00:06:00] work. So for example, your messages can acknowledge the potential points of resistance, and you can get on the front foot with counter-messaging. Or you can include more opportunities for people to privately ask questions or provide conversation tools and training for leaders, et cetera, et cetera.

So for example, I was working with a client recently on a change comms plan for a building project that they're starting at one of their sites, and it's going to involve demolishing a massive pre-existing building that was built back in the 1960s, '70s. Now, that might seem straightforward enough, right?

You're just knocking down a building. But if you now consider the building is riddled with asbestos, as is very common for buildings of that age, and the noise and demolition, uh, noise and vibrations from demolitions, and that the local community is, uh, quite elderly, we can start to see where some of the worry and resistance could come from.

So if I take the asbestos [00:07:00] situation in particular, what did we do? We got on the front foot. We said straightaway that asbestos was going to be removed. We stepped through how the contractors were going to do that in line with legislation. We made that really simple. We used icons. We just stripped it right down out of the scientific jargon into really simple terms.

We also held meetings with different stakeholder groups where the specialist asbestos hygienist came along to also answer questions. And the result was that because we were upfront and because we were tackling what their potential points of resistance were straightaway, that people are pretty comfortable with that side of things now, and they're actually excited that the crappy old building is finally coming down.

So the point is, expect that resistance will come and plan for how you will respond. Okay. The second tip, which we've talked about on the poddy before, is co-creation. When you have skin in the game, you are more likely to willingly participate in the change, and that's what co-creation is just all about.[00:08:00]

Now, like we said, humans do not tend to like change when we feel like it's happening to us rather than by us or for us. If we don't have a sense of control over the change, it's really uncomfortable Incidentally, that's why so many people have a fear of flying in planes because unlike a car, they are not in control, and even though there is a statistically much higher chance of being injured or killed in a car crash than a plane crash, we still have that fear.

It's also interesting to see how people are really averse to driverless cars, even though the reality is the driverless car is probably a much safer driver than any of us. But it all harks back to the inbuilt survival mechanisms in our brain. Control in our brains means safety. Lack of control means uncertainty, which means risk and fear.

Now, co-creation is a behavioural science bias that's been proven multiple times in multiple different experiments and basically tells us that we tend to value something more if [00:09:00] it's been created by us rather than something we don't own or haven't had a part in creating, even if the alternative is much better.

So this is where giving people opportunities to participate in planning the change, implementation, providing feedback, even planning the communications can be super helpful. As people feel a sense of ownership, they'll be much more likely to advocate for the change among their peers. Now, this co-creation process is also an opportunity for you to share in your communication how you've involved people from the organisation and listened to their voices, and this taps into our social proof bias, which is really strong amongst all of us.

But it is also an opportunity to tap into the labour illusion. Now, if you haven't heard of that before, the labour illusion is a bias where we tend to value something more if we think a lot of effort has gone into it. So in your comms, you could mention how many people have been involved in designing the change, [00:10:00] how many hours of interviews you did to plan, et cetera, et cetera, to really amplify that effect.

So that's number two, encourage co-creation. Number three, use personalised two-way communication. Sending a whole of company CEO email is unlikely to counter resistance. Just be honest with yourself. If anything, it might actually increase it, not because of the lack of control we feel over the change, but also the impersonal nature of a group wide email and who has sent it.

The messenger you choose is a critical part of developing that personalised two-way communication that people respond well to. So for example, if a person's direct line manager who they like and respect delivers the change message in a team meeting or a one-on-one, I wager you'll find far less resistance than the CEO whole of group email.

Now, why? Well, because who sends a message matters more than the [00:11:00] message itself. If I don't like or trust you, or if I don't respect you, I'm not going to listen to you, and it's really hard for people in large organisations in particular to build that level of trust with this distant CEO figure. Also, as a direct leader, you are able to make the change very real, very relevant, very tangible to your people.

It's no longer this vague, high-level esoteric thing. The two-way personalised conversations also help us to counter the resistance that you're going to get because it gives you that opportunity to answer questions and to understand what is worrying people in the first place. Now, when we do change comms projects for projects like restructures or mergers and acquisitions, anything that involves people change really, we always factor open door time into our plan.

So this is an hour or two a couple of times a week where team leaders block out their diaries, and during those times, anyone can come and chat with them, either [00:12:00] in person or online, with their questions and concerns. It just provides this safe space to share. When it comes to personalisation, apart from messenger and the channel, which is exactly what that is, open door time is a channel.

It's also about how you explain the change. So this means we need to put change, especially when it's complex, into terms that make sense for people in their roles. There is no point using this analogy of a person piloting a plane if your audience can't relate to it or understand the point that you're trying to make.

But if you could use a persona or avatar that represents those people and explain how their role will be different or the processes will change or whatever it might be, then you've got a much better chance of your message resonating. So that's tip number three, use personalised two-way communication Tip number four, and this ties into this tip number three very nicely, is listen.

Take the [00:13:00] time and make the spaces to really listen to people from different teams and in different roles. And you should be doing this while planning, implementing, and evaluating the change basically throughout the entire change project. The reason is that when people feel heard, they feel valued, and if you can demonstrate that you've listened to people and what they said mattered, then you are much more likely to get them to come along for the ride, and they are also much more likely to give you honest feedback when you ask for it.

Now, also, when you listen to what is worrying people and what is exciting them, what is still unclear or what they think could get in the way of change, you get absolute gold feedback you can use then to update your comms in real time. This means that whatever you're delivering is the best it can be in that moment.

Now, like I said at the start, if you think your project is going to go to plan, think again. Your comms strategy and plan is just the [00:14:00] starting point. You need to be flexible and shift your plan in response to what you are hearing. So how do you do this? Well, if you can, please avoid a survey. There's way too many of them in the world today.

They probably won't help you figure out what you need to change anyway. Instead, you could reach out to a selection of team members from different roles and different teams and book in just a ten-minute chat. If you're doing a progressive rollout of a new system or process, for example, ask the first couple of groups to share their thoughts to help you make the next phase even better for their colleagues.

Now, importantly, make sure you circle back, to use some awful jargon there, but come back to people, let them know what you heard and what you are doing with their feedback so they know their voice was valued, that it wasn't a waste of their time. A word of warning here. It can be easy to go on the defensive when you hear things like, "The communication has been crap."

I've heard that too, don't worry. But you need to [00:15:00] get curious and really dig into, "Well, what do you mean by that?" Now, when I've done that, and this happened just recently actually, it's often transpired that their team leader didn't pass on some information, or this person was away for a few weeks and missed some emails and meetings and things.

So as a wise person once said, "Be curious, not judgmental." Finally, tip number five. To help reduce instance of reactance, resistance, whatever you wanna call it, make the change as simple to understand and the e- information as easy to access as possible. If people are only understanding bits and pieces of the change, or they can't access the information that you have so diligently put together, then of course they're going to resist because they can't see the full picture, there's gaps in information, they'll have a lot of questions and a lot of uncertainty.

As communicators, this is our bread and butter, making it easy, accessible, and relevant for our audiences. And yet we all get [00:16:00] into bad habits. So for example, putting on a town hall and expecting people will actually watch the replay, or putting information on an intranet page where most of the frontline team never get a chance to go on there and look at it.

There's a really great framework developed by the behavioural insights team in the UK. So if you're not aware of this team, they were pulled together in 2010 by the UK government of the day to help design policies that would actually result in behaviour change. Now, they're now an independent company operating around the world, which is pretty cool.

But Anyway, the point is, they developed this framework. It's called the EAST framework, E-A-S-T, which stands for easy, attractive, social and timely. And what they found was that the more friction you could remove from change or the more potential barriers, the more likely change was to happen. Which totally makes sense, right?

But the problem is, many organisations don't stop and think, "Where are the potential barriers to people making this change?" [00:17:00] Or they don't ask their people where those barriers could be. Or the project team thinks it's super easy, it makes sense, but they have more context and maybe more specialist expertise in an area than the general audience does.

So your comms, particularly as you're developing your FAQs during the planning phase, can really help to uncover where some of those potential barriers will be. You can also talk to people to test those assumptions, and you can work with the project team to design communication that helps people navigate the barriers that you can't shift.

Okay, it is time for your episode wrap-up, and today we talked about that million-dollar question: How do we manage people when they resist change? How do we stop resistance to change? And of course, the first point I made was, you can't. People will resist change, but there are things that we do to plan for it, and that is the first tip: Plan for the resistance, don't wait for it.

Factor this into your comms plans and think about [00:18:00] what you can do to respond when it happens. The second tip was encourage co-creation. Get people involved so they've got skin in the game, a sense of ownership and a sense of control. The third tip was use those personalised two-way communication channels.

So when we say personalised, think about the messenger who is delivering the message, how they're doing that, the channels that they're using. When we think about those two-way communication channels, it takes us through to the fourth tip, which is listen. Take the time to really listen to what people are saying and provide those safe places for people to do that.

And number five, make it simple. Make it easy, and make it easy to understand. When we can reduce the barriers to getting the information people need to make the change, then we are going to help get that change through in a much more efficient and effective manner. All right, team, that's your episode for this week.

Thank you so much for coming along for the ride. As always, I [00:19:00] would love your feedback. If you haven't yet, please shoot me a message and rate and review the show. I would love to hear what you love to hear on this show. I'm open to your ideas. This is The People Show, after all. In the meantime, keep doing amazing things, and bye for now.