Migration to a LO LO14520

Hal Croasmun (blt@eden.com)
Mon, 28 Jul 1997 16:17:43

Replying to LO14485 --

Bill Harris <billh@lsid.hp.com> wrote:

> . . . you apply change, and you get resistance. Period.
>
>The trick is whether you can manage it. If you try to surpress it, you
>will still get it (by the Ohm's Law analogy, it's a law of nature), but it
>will go underground where you have _no_ chance to manage it. The better
>strategy, so the claim (and my experience) is to do everything you can to
>get people to express their resistance openly so that you can indeed deal
>with it openly.
>
>This doesn't mean giving in to resistance. The tactic still remains to
>make it increasingly easier to adopt the new ways and increasingly more
>difficult to maintain the old, but people need to feel free to express
>their concerns in a dialog. Who knows --- maybe they'll even surface some
>important issues you've missed but need to understand.

I like this approach. There are easier ways to deal with resistance than
to oppose it. First, as stated above, include it in the process. Find
value in it. Look for how the resistant person is providing value to the
group and exploit the value of their resistance. Incorporate their
objections into part of the solution finding process. Say something like
"That's definitely a concern, does anyone have a solution for the problem
that ...has brought up?" or "That's important and it's why we took over
six months to research this project. We have four solutions to that
problem. They are . . ."

This accomplishes some valuable results: it acknowledges the person for
participating (instead of resisting), and it may lead to better solutions.
But, sometimes people are resisting just to gain power or sabotage the
process. In those cases, you have turned their pain into a success for
everyone. If they continue to resist, continue to find solutions and
continue to acknowledge them for contributing to the process. A person
who is trying to sabotage usually stops if their sabotage efforts
continually creates more success.

Another way to deal with this is to spend time with an individual who is
resistant and just listen to their concerns. Many times, when you have a
deeper understanding of them, you'll also have your solution for dealing
with them. There may be issues you never thought of or problems that you
have already solved, but just hadn't communicated to them. The more
understanding you have of a situation, the easier it is to deal with it
effectively.

When we are migrating to a LO, there will be many resistances along the
way, but if handled well, they could actually make it easier in the long
run to create a successful LO.

Hal Croasmun
mailto:blt@eden.com

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-- 

Hal Croasmun <blt@eden.com>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>