Handling Objections - From Theory to Practice

Office workers, split in teams, engage in a tug-of-war with a thick rope. Sunlit office with large windows. Determined expressions.

Written in collaboration with Naama (Sivan) Halevi

In organizational knowledge management processes, many cultural aspects are integrated, from the characterization stage to leading processes that involve value and behavioral changes. To successfully lead change, one must work simultaneously through two different channels: Creating internal commitment from all involved parties and reducing resistance.

We have written reviews and tips on creating commitment in several journal issues and extensively addressed motivation, engagement, and rewards. This review will focus on the other channel: reducing resistance.

How is resistance expressed? What are its sources? And how can it be addressed? For this review, we relied on W. Warner Burke's book Organizational Change—Theory and Practice.

How is Resistance Expressed?

Successfully dealing with resistance first requires identifying it. Sometimes, this is especially easy, for example, when someone refuses to perform their tasks. However, resistance is typically expressed indirectly and subtly, making it difficult to identify. Below are several common expressions from content experts we've encountered during our work:

Cynical remarks
Open comments about lack of time
Comments regarding feelings of unfairness (the role is an addition to the regular job)
Venting general frustrations related to their regular role
Not performing the role or its associated tasks
Performing the role or tasks carelessly, only partially, or negligently
"Dragging feet"
Passivity in the role
Distracting tactics - ranging from systematically postponing meetings with different (seemingly logical) excuses, complaining about others not completing tasks (as a way to avoid their responsibilities), to politely and elegantly shifting conversation topics to matters not directly related to their role

Important clarification: Not every cynical remark indicates resistance, and the same applies to the other symptoms. Partial performance, for instance, might simply result from overload and lack of time.

It's crucial to recognize and address these expressions from the moment we identify them as resistance because ignoring these "underground rumblings" could lead to intensified eruptions in later stages and cause significant damage to the entire process in the long run.

What is the Source of Resistance to Change?

Resistance is generally not to the change but to giving up familiar and comfortable patterns. This abandonment leads to anxiety, as it requires psychological effort to learn new patterns and manage frustration during the adaptation process. The inability to control or choose the change is an additional anxiety factor that strengthens resistance. These anxieties sometimes outweigh the anticipated benefits of change, so resistance may occur even when the change is positive. Another factor to consider is that change often involves an experience of loss; the more important the component is in a person's life, the greater the loss and the likelihood of resistance.

There are several types of resistance:

Blind resistance - A minority of people feel threatened by any change and will always resist
Political resistance stems from fear of losing power base, status, position, salary, etc.
Ideological resistance - Resistance based on a genuine belief that the change is wrong or violates important values. These are real intellectual disagreements between ideas, feelings, or beliefs

Matching the approach to the type of resistance expressed is critical for proper change management:

Blind resistance - A solution composed of efforts to provide security combined with patience and adaptation time
Political resistance - A response that includes negotiation where something of value is given in exchange for what was lost
Ideological resistance - Addressing this requires providing answers with as much information and data as possible that support the change

When dealing with different types of resistance, we can also use the following techniques:

Reflection

Reflection is openly repeating and expressing an individual's words and feelings. Reflecting on the experience someone is going through due to change can help them cope with it. Many of us naturally perform reflection in everyday life without effort, but when we need to do it intentionally, the following tips are recommended:

Asking open-ended questions that invite conversation
Repeating the employee's words: "So you're saying the role is difficult for you..."
Rephrasing extreme reactions, for example, to an employee claiming, "The job is simply disgusting," reflects: "I understand that you don't like the role very much."
Personal example: "I also found it difficult at first..."

Closure and Completion

Most people need to end and complete, and they will invest energy in reaching a sense of closing what was opened. This general tendency also applies to organizational change. Often, 'resistance to change' is energy invested in closing a process that ended due to the change. Therefore, those involved in change need to help organization members by creating closing ceremonies and additional ways to achieve closure. Establishing an organizational site or portal is one way to implement this technique. For instance, ceremonies can be performed when deciding to start building the site, during its launch, at the end of the trial period, on the first anniversary of the site's operation, etc.

Isolating Factors

This technique helps when encountering a situation where a stated reason for resistance is suspected not to be the real reason. This technique is summarized in questions or statements like "And besides that..." or "Let's assume that...". For example, you can ask an employee who claims they don't have time to perform their role: "And besides that, is everything else okay...?" or "Assuming we solve the time issue, do you think you could perform the role properly...?". These questions aim to isolate the true factors and reasons for resistance.

Participation

The more people are involved in decisions about the future, the more committed they are to implementation and support. Conversely, when people feel decisions are forced upon them, they resist. In any case, even without expressions of decisive resistance, a lack of participation leads to a lack of 'psychological commitment.' As a result, cooperation is minimal and done unwillingly. On the other hand, increasing organization members' involvement in change processes reduces resistance and improves cooperation. Employee participation can take place in almost every aspect of knowledge management. When conducting an investigation, a joint definition of criteria can be established with employees (e.g., when financial damage exceeds X, whenever production is shut down). When creating a portal, content experts can decide on topic prioritization, define work processes, etc.

Using Imagination

Discussing a process or something beyond the "here and now" can reduce resistance and allow a softer return to current reality. You can talk about a different reality, for example, imagining the content expert as a host - what would determine the nature of their hosting? What would be important to offer their customers to ensure they come? Then, we return to reality and apply these examples to the professional content world on the site. You can discuss a different period and describe what happened: "What does daily activity look like in the consultants' community in 2009?" Afterward, you can return to reality and consider what should be done to bring this desired vision closer.

Reducing Concerns

At a group level, a one-time workshop can be conducted at the beginning of the change process, asking participants to raise concerns about the change. Following this, group members themselves can be enlisted to suggest helpful solutions. This strengthens the sense of "togetherness" and offers good solutions for addressing concerns.

Conclusion

Remember that resistance is a natural and important response, expressing care and containing energy. Therefore, it should not be seen as negative, but it's important to identify it and understand its reasons - as the first step in building a successful change process.