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Resistance: I don’t have the skills

The other day I posted a blog listing some of the reasons for resisting Change.  This is the second in series exploring those reasons. 

Today’s reason is people’s fear that they won’t have the necessary skills to operate / function in the new set-up.  The first thing to say is they may, of course, be exactly right.  It obviously depends on the degree and nature of the change.  Before you announce your programme, you need to have assessed what kind of training and support your team might need.  It needs to be appropriate to people’s preferred learning styles rather than a one size fits all  training session, and there may be the need for ongoing support.

You also need to be aware this can be as much about how people feel about their capabilities as their actual capability.  If you fail to address their feelings, you are likely to fail.

“What we can or cannot do, what we consider possible or impossible, is rarely a function of our true capability. It is more likely a function of our beliefs about who we are.”   Anthony Robbins

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 9th, 2008 at 19:57 and is filed under Business Change. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Resistance: I don’t have the skills”

  1. Paul Hayward says:
    10 June , 2008 at 18:02

    To say that “people fear they won’t have the necessary skills to operate / function in the new set-up” is to risk mistaking surface appearance for the substance of the matter.

    People do not fear a lack. What they fear are the consequences of a lack. Remove the consequences and the lack poses no obstacle. And in business removing consequences in very much in the hands of management.

    This is a very good example where circumstances can be changed to fit the worker (which is management), rather than demand that the worker changes to fit the circumstances (which is the abdication of manangement).

    Hence pilots learn on a simulator; drivers learn with a dual-controls vehicle; gymnasts practice with protective fall-zones and Mother Nature usually arranges that kids walk before they run.

    People fear change????? Nooooo! People live with change all the time, from day to day and from moment to moment. They themselves change. Man the animal was built for change. When there is insufficient some will create even more (climb Everest, go to the moon).

    When introducing change it is time for management to step up to the mark and creatively introduce and inspire, matching consequence with the capacity of each worker for risk and the over all exposure for the organisation.

    I would also advocate that management does not “announce a programme”. People hate to be “done to” and will probably quietly sabotage anything resembling imposition.

    May I suggest management indicates a direction and allows the team to come up with the methodology. To quote General George S. Patton: “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”

    Regards

    Paul

  2. richardderwentcooke says:
    10 June , 2008 at 20:37

    Paul,
    Thank you for a long and thoughtful post. If you have read much of my stuff you will realise already that I agree with most of what you say and indeed used the very same quote a few days back

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