How to Reduce the Resistance to Change

Change can be done overnight!!!!!!

When talking about changes, the first reaction will be gotten is resistance. This resistance is related to four basic situations such as (1) people can not foresee how the change will affect them, (2) people perceive that change does not fit their needs and hopes, (3)  people see that change is avoidable, and (4) people view change is not their best interest. Some other reasons such as fear of the unknown, economics, fear that skill and expertise will lose value, threats to power, additional work and convenience, or threats to interpersonal relations are also include. In terms of talking about the resistance to change, there appear some solutions that can be used to reduce this resistance to change, and these are (Rue & Byars, 2007, pp. 376-377):
 A. Building trust: When the employees trust and have confidence in management, they will positively accept change. This requires managers to go along the way toward building trust when discussing upcoming changes with the employees, and they actively involve employees in the change process.
 B. Discussing upcoming change: Fear of unknown is the main barrier to change. This fear can be greatly reduced by discussing any upcoming changes with the affected employees. Being open and honest have to be done during the discussion, and it is required to explain what change will, and why change is being made.
 C. Involving the employees: Involving the employees means more than merely discussing the upcoming changes with them. The key is to involve the employees personally in the entire change process. This is to ask for employees’ ideas and input as early as possible in the change process.
 D. Making sure the changes are reasonable: Making sure that change has reasonably been done. Proposing change at any department in the organization, it has to be reasonable whether change is really necessary to be done with it or not.
 E. Avoiding threats: Attempting to force or coerce change through the use of threats, the result will be negatively. This will decrease rather than increase the employees’ trust, and this will only lead to resistance.
 F. Following a sensible time schedule: It is required to use common sense when proposing a time schedule for implementing changes because changes can not happen overnight, but it takes time.

Sam Aun (Andy)