Dealing with Resistance
Peter
Block says that “there is no way you can talk {someone} out of their resistance
because resistance is an emotional process. You cannot talk people out of how
they are feeling.” He goes on to say that “the basic strategy is to help the
resistance blow itself out, like a storm.”
Block
suggests that there are three steps to dealing with resistance:
1.
Identify in your own mind the form of the
resistance
2. Name
the resistance – use neutral language to describe the form that the resistance
is taking.
3.
Be quiet – let the person respond to your
statement about the resistance. Don’t keep talking. Live with the silence and
tension.
Using
open ended questions or statements, instead of questions or statements that can
be replied to with yes or no answers, we are probably beginning to get the
idea. Our statement begins with a description of the behavior which is followed
by a question or statement about what is needed or how this affects the work we
are trying to do.
This
process of identifying, naming and being quiet provides a mechanism for getting
the resistance out on the table so that it can be addressed. Being aware of
these concepts may help us to identify the form of resistance that we are
encountering.
Resistance
to the growth of new ideas, processes, and structures is normal even in nature.
But, just as in nature, growth is difficult to stop. Leaders who are unafraid
to identify and name resistance can clear the path for healthy growth that will
bear the fruits of success.
From Diagnosis to Discovery
The
purpose of discovery is to mobilize action on a problem. Technical/business
problems almost always have accompanying management problems that affect how
the technical/business problem gets resolved. The approach of not to address
the organizational side and see how technical recommendations get distorted or
partially implemented reveals the difficulty an organization has in communicating,
trusting, and managing itself.
The
kind of discovery, engagement, and dialogue gives us our best approach in
building client capacity and solving problems so they stay solved. This action
orientation makes the assumption that client readiness to accept our input is
as important to discovery as the technical analysis of the problem to be
solved.
Thus
we can say there are two primary purposes of discover phase. Firstly, to
develop independent and fresh way of looking at things and secondly, to create
a process that leads to client commitment, ownership and action.
In
order to do so following process should be considered worth for:
1.
Asking questions about the client’s own
personal role in causing or maintaining the target problem.
2. Asking
questions about what others in the organization are doing to cause or maintain
the target problem.
3. Involving
the client in interpreting the data and generating recommendations.
4. Recognizing
the similarity between how the client manages you and how they manage their own
organization.
5.
Condensing the data into a limited number
of issues.
