How receptive is your company to change? The readiness for change has a bearing on who you need to champion change and the effort that would be required. The Readiness for Change grid illustrates the differences.
When the change resistance is high, a conservative change mindset would lead to cautious moves so as to minimize conflicts. The chance of success is low because any resistance would cause the change effort to retreat.
On the other hand, an aggressive mindset would instigate constant battles. Those who want to push change through would take a hardline. Others who don’t like change would seek allies to create roadblocks. A lot of effort would be spent on winning the battle rather than working collaboratively to resolve differences.
In companies where the change resistance is low, the degree of success hinges on whether the company leverages the advantage. A conservative mindset leads to slow progress when every step seeks consensus and is treated with elaborate planning. The timeline for implementation is prolonged.
However, if the change leadership is focused and geared to move aggressively, the company would be able to implement transformative changes rapidly. Though this calls for solid planning and coherent actions, resistance doesn’t create any threat to the ambitious timeline.
It is beneficial to know where the starting point is so that you select the appropriate change leader to champion the initiative and build in proper time and effort allowances to manage the resistance that might arise along the way.
Leave a Reply