Resistance

Words matter. One in particular matters in organizational change: Resistance. The way the term was originally used in the sense of electrical resistances—factors that inhibit the flow of electrons, or in the case of change restraining forces that work to maintain the status quo. But most of the time, I hear it as a label--slapped on people who haven’t jumped on the change bandwagon. Unfortunately, that label gets in the way. It shuts down curiosity and shuts down learning. In this episode, I’ll talk about the assumptions behind using the term and the organizational costs.