Ask any leader who has led a change, and most will describe resistance: meetings where nobody objects and nothing moves, new procedures followed on paper only, the old way returning as soon as attention moves on.
Resistance is often treated as a problem with people. It is better understood as the normal response of people to a change they did not choose. Expect it, and you can work with it. Treat it as a fault, and it goes underground.
Why resistance is normal
A change asks people to give up something certain for something promised. Research on decision-making, starting with Kahneman and Tversky, shows that people weigh a loss more heavily than a gain of the same size. What a change takes away is felt before what it offers.
A change also touches what people believe about themselves: that they are good at their job, that their experience counts, that they are safe. A new way of working can quietly say the opposite.
Behaviour has roots: Believe, Think, Feel, Act
BTFA™ describes a chain: what we believe shapes how we think; how we think shapes how we feel; how we feel shapes how we act. Behaviour is the last link, and the only one we can see.
Most change programs work on that last link: new procedures, new targets, new training. Behaviour may change for a while. But if the belief beneath it is untouched, the old behaviour returns as soon as the pressure eases.
An example. A supervisor is asked to let his team stop the line when they see a defect. He believes a stopped line makes him look like a poor supervisor. He thinks his manager judges him on output alone. He feels anxious every time it stops. So he acts: he asks the team to note the defect and keep going. On paper he accepted the change; in practice he resisted it, for reasons that make sense to him.
Seen this way, resistance is not stubbornness. It is a reasonable act that follows from a belief nobody has addressed.
What leaders can do with it
1. Expect it and say so. Telling people that doubts are normal makes it safer to raise them.
2. Ask what people believe the change means for them. The concern they voice is usually the feeling; keep listening until you reach the belief.
3. Address the belief, not only the act. In the example, a manager who thanks the supervisor in front of his team for stopping the line changes the belief more than a new procedure would.
4. Make the new way the easier way. Remove the steps, forms and approvals that still reward the old behaviour.
5. Stay longer than feels necessary. Beliefs shift through repeated experience, not through one announcement.
Change is easy; sustaining it is the task
Most organisations can start a change. Fewer can hold it a year later. Resistance is not the enemy of that; ignored resistance is.
How Tahseen can help: our change program, built on BTFA™, works at three levels: leaders learn the model and apply it to their own beliefs and behaviours; experienced practitioners coach others; and the mindset is embedded to hold the gains under pressure. Tahseen, the system, keeps the record of every improvement, so the gains stay visible long after the launch. If resistance is slowing a change in your organisation, write to us at hello@tahseen.om.
BTFA™ is a methodology and trademark of Duxinaroe Ltd, created by David Bovis. Tahseen's founder is a certified BTFA Master Coach.