Overview

When we try to improve our organizations, we inevitably encounter resistance. For many of us, resistance can be frustrating, especially when we care deeply about the improvements we are trying to make.

This workshop is about how to turn resistance from a frustration into a resource. Whatever else it may be, resistance is information — about the changes we recommend, about the people we are asking to change, about the environment in which the change will happen, and about ourselves.

In this interactive workshop, participants learn how to treat people’s responses as information, and how to translate that information into effective action to move forward with change.

Audience

The Resistance as a Resource Workshop is designed for people who want to learn how to respond more effectively to resistance. It most valuable for people who are dealing with resistance right now, or who expect to encounter resistance to their change efforts in the near future. Participants may include process improvement team members, trainers, internal consultants, and others who are trying to introduce improvements in their organizations.

Objectives

Participants will gain new knowledge and practice new skills essential for resolving resistance. They will be prepared to:

• Understand the factors that determine whether people accept or resist a change
• Reduce the amount of resistance they get
• Interpret resistance to understand what people are resisting and why
• Use resistance as a source of valuable information about the change, about the people being asked to change, and about the environment in which the change will happen
• Use that information to take action to resolve resistance and build support for change

By learning through doing, participants will have an opportunity to:

• Practice applying these skills, to learn from personal experience and the experiences of fellow participants
• Increase knowledge
• Build confidence in using the knowledge and skills in the real world

Format

The Resistance as a Resource Workshop is a one day workshop designed for approximately 20 people. This workshop is highly interactive, alternating brief lectures with participant activities and dialogues. The instructor draws heavily on the experience of participants. Each participant has the opportunity to practice new skills in exercises based on relevant, real-life situations.

Customizing the Workshop

I am proud of the value I have designed into the standard Resistance as a Resource Workshop. I am even more proud of my ability to tailor the workshop to deliver maximum value for each unique client.

I would like to coordinate with you in advance of the workshop, to understand the most critical resistance issues facing participants. With this information, I will design examples, exercises, and activities that are highly relevant to those issues, to provide maximum immediate value — value that participants can achieve during the workshop.

I also have flexibility in customizing the content of the workshop. If there are important specific topics you wish to address, in addition to the standard topics listed below, I can work with you to select and organize topics that are most relevant to your goals.

Shorter versions of the Resistance as a Resource Workshop are available. You may also be interested in the Change Artist Workshop, which covers a broader range of topics for change artists. Ask for more information.

Outline

The Resistance as a Resource Workshop covers these topics:

• How individuals experience change. Four stages of change. Implications for organizational change.
• What makes a response resistance. Factors that affect how people respond to suggestions for change. How resistance gets you stuck. How curiosity helps to resolve resistance.
• How relationships affect resistance. What resistance tells you about your relationship with the people you are asking to change. What to do about it.
• How communication affects resistance. How to make sure you understand what people are really saying, and they understand you.
• How people’s expectations about change affect resistance. How to understand others’ expectations about your change. How to use this information to build more appropriate expectations.
• How the organizational environment affects resistance. How to understand what support and obstacles the environment offers for your change. How to remove obstacles and create support.
• Strategies for minimizing resistance.
• Next Steps Review of the topics covered in the workshop. Determine next steps for participants. Resources for further learning.

Comments from Previous Participants

• "Very practical, very well presented. Workable solutions to real-world scenarios."
• "Thank you. Enjoyable and insightful!"
• "Excellent, thought provoking and fun."
• "Great approach! Thank you!"
• "Insightful. Exercises were interesting and thought provoking."
• "Very practical. Very appropriate topic. Enjoyed the approach."