Tapping the potential in resistance

Resistance is energy and effort focused on noncompliance with a new direction for a group or organization. It results in significant costs to an organization including lost opportunity from delayed or truncated implementation, managers who are distracted and under stress, loss of high-performing talent, lost clients, and reduced client service. Managers overextend themselves when they take on the responsibility to overcome or bypass resistance to create the compliance. Resistance also is within each person and has significant cost to the individuals who resist as they experience stress and various losses: confidence, alternatives, performance, status, position, and relationships. The fear and uncertainty related to a future that is unclear and related to whether a successful transition can happen, becomes the underpinning of thinking and activity while resistance exists. Both the managers promoting compliance and the individuals resisting are expending energy, which can be diverted to uncovering potential for the future.