LEADERSHIP ARTICLE SERIES

Reducing Resistance to Change and Conflict: A Key to Leadership

Based on decades of experience working with organizational leaders in corporations, government and education fields, RI consultants have discovered two primary challenges to any leader's success.  These are in the skill of the leader to deal with change and conflict.

Unfortunately most leaders do not become leaders because of their skill and talent in these two areas.   Fortunately, most leaders are more than capable of becoming skilled and talented at dealing with the inevitable resistance to change and conflict within their organization.

To assist the leaders of all organizations, RI provides the following six downloadable files, five articles and a bibliography.  You can download the complete series, as one 64 page pdf file, or any individual file by clicking on that article's title below. 

Links to other RI online resources are included where appropriate within the following outline of content in each article. You may also download a proposal for a New Supervisor Training that describes a multi-day training program designed to introduce new leaders to how they can deal successfully with the two primary challenges: change and conflict.

Article One:   Models of Resistance to Change

• You can't steal second base with your foot on first (the need to reduce resistance
  before initiating a change effort)
• Everybody has resistance (they call them concerns):
• The Concerns Based Adoption Model (Fuller & Hall)
• The Barrier of Uncomfortableness
• Three Processes and Four P's of Transition (Bridges & Mitchell)
• No gripe sessions
• There are many leaders
• Not merely asking permission
• Upcoming Series
Article Two: Herding Cats: The Process of Organizational Decision-making

• How decisions are made (Schein)
• The value of consensus
• The Consensus Style Decision Making Flowchart
• What's my part in the decision?
• Building an environment in which it is safe to disagree
• The relationship between disagreements and misunderstandings
• The Decision Making Grid
• Case Study
Article Three:   Understanding and Respect

• The Relationship between misunderstandings and disagreements
• Categories of disagreements and misunderstandings
• Understanding what understanding really is
• The Martial Art of Communication
• A Case Study in understanding and respect
• Appendix: August 2003 Survey on Resistance to Authority
Article Four:   Improving Communication is Easier Said Than Done

• Sharpening the saw (Covey)
• Communication models and techniques
  • Three Questions to Reduce Misunderstandings
  • The Be-Attitudes of the Martial Art of Communication
  • Clear Communication: Five Levels of A Clear Communication
  • Constructive Feedback: The Feedback Sandwich
  • Creating Supportive Agreements: Six Stages of Creating Supportive Agreements
Article Five:  RI Teambuilding Processes:
Build An Organizational Culture of Respect, Personal and Shared Responsibility

• Group dynamics: Methods that facilitate all to express more openly, > reduce resistance to moving in a positive direction, increase individual and group responsibility, focus on productive problem solving, and give managers/leaders opportunity to reduce resistance.
  • Confidential Interviews
  • Anonymous surveys
  • Fishbowl Discussions
  • Delivering the mail activity
  • Post-it-note team problem solving method
Bibliography for all five articles