In the last several posts, I have been discussing the primal reactant to change – “fear of” or “feelings of” loss – and also various behaviors that you may encounter for individuals or groups within the organization during times of organized change. In this post, I want to talk about how to prepare for and anticipate resistance during the change planning process.

Who is ready to change? Is anyone ready to change? We know the answer to those questions – rarely is anyone ready for change, even if the change is viewed as positive. There are always some underlying resistance such as the fear of something new, worry about having the skills for the new tasks or direction, not seeing the value in the change and thus being a bit apathetic, the feeling of the loss of freedom of choice, not feeling included, etc. So, if there is always some resistance, then the real question becomes “How well did you prepare by identifying how ready for change people are, what resistance will be likely, and what steps you can take in preparation, planning, and execution to ensure that you can overcome such resistance and see change occur?”  To say this another way, how ready are people in the organization to accept and implement the change? 

So, can change readiness be created? Of course it can; otherwise, change would rarely occur. Where organizations tend to fail is simply “not” creating readiness but just assuming that either (a) everyone will just want to do this, (b) that everyone will just do it because they get paid, or (c) that everyone fully understands why this is important and agrees – even though you have likely failed at clearly communicating the reasons for the change. If you admit to this, you have already begun your journey at improving change management.

David Gleicher and Richard Beckhard have been given credit for creating a mathematical formula to describe what we are discussing. Gleicher’s Formula, as it is called, in its original form was:

C = (ABD) > X

where C=Change, A=level of dissatisfaction with the status quo, B=clear desired state, D=clear practical first steps, and X=cost of the change. Since the original statement of this formula, the formula was further refined by Kathie Dannemiller to better resonate with business and it now widely viewed as:

C = (DVF) > R

where C=Change, D=degree of dissatisfaction with current state, V=the vision of what can be done and what is possible, F=A plan of the first concrete steps that can be taken towards materializing this vision, and R=Resistance.

Using that formula as a framework for planning change, you can see that to “create readiness” (i.e., to create enough force to overcome resistance), you must consider four key questions:

  1. Have we given thought to, discussed, and documented the types of resistance that might be expected.
  2. How satisfied or dissatisfied are current stakeholders with the status quo or “current state”?
  3. Have we created a clear vision of the “future state” and accurately portrayed what is possible – what we gain?, what we avoid losing?, how things will work?, etc.
  4. Have we defined clear first steps that people can quickly and easily identify and see how those steps start moving us toward our future state?

While we cannot simply use a calculation (assigning values to each element), the formula is useful in directing us to the key elements we must truly examine and discuss during the preparation for change and the construction of our change process. I will take a closer look at each of these elements in future posts.