Resistance to change is often cited as one of the biggest obstacles to change.
However, it doesn’t need to be.
You can prevent it.
In many cases, what leaders experience as “resistance” is not resistance at all. It’s the predictable outcome of how change is framed, communicated, and led. When leaders misinterpret normal human responses, they can unintentionally create the very resistance they are trying to eliminate.
Below are three common traps that trick leaders into believing their employees are resistant to change, and what those traps reveal about how change really works.
A Half Marathon, a Spaghetti Dinner, and a Lesson in Change
Several years ago, I participated in a half-marathon. The night before the race, the sponsor invited all the runners to a spaghetti dinner. At the time, carbohydrate loading was believed to increase muscle glycogen stores and provide extra energy for race day.
Did the dinner help? Maybe. However, I believe my ability to complete the race had far more to do with the eight months of preparation leading up to it.
Now imagine a different scenario.
Three weeks before the race, I ask my friend to join me. She raises concerns about her fitness level and her knees. I reassure her, saying, “Don’t worry, I’ve been training. We’ll do some running, and we’ll have a spaghetti dinner the night before.”
If she continues to express hesitation and ultimately refuses to run, I label her “resistant to change” and insist she participate anyway.
Of course, I didn’t do that.
Had I done so, I would not only have been a terrible friend, but I would have set her up for failure and injury.
Yet this is precisely what happens in organizations every day.
Employees are surprised by change, unprepared for what is required of them, given unrealistic timelines, and then labelled as resistant when they raise concerns. When they continue to raise objections, leaders tell them they must change or risk their jobs.
This dynamic does not signal resistance.
Trap #1: Belief People Resist Change
The first and most foundational trap is interpreting objections, concerns, or hesitation as evidence that people resist change. Interpreting objections, concerns, or unwillingness to change as evidence of people’s resistance to change.
This belief is what I call a Resistance Mindset. When you hold this mindset, your brain misinterprets normal human responses to change, like uncertainty, fear and questions, as resistance. This misinterpretation can have significant consequences.
I had one client who downplayed and dismissed valid concerns of their key adopters. Here’s what happened.
Leaders believed it was a small, almost insignificant change. They were moving a small group of people from a suburban office to the downtown office. When employees complained, and because most of the complaints were about working downtown, the leaders dismissed them as resistance.
When a leader from another department in the suburban office, who was not involved in the decision, raised concerns about how his small group of employees would complete their work, the leaders paused to investigate. It turned out that the group moving was an integral part of the workflow for a much larger department, and most of the work required people to be physically present.
Trap #2: Tell-Sell Communication
The second trap is believing your role is to “sell” the change.
When you use a tell-sell approach to change, you overlook the readiness people need to navigate the journey to adopt the new activities and behaviours.
Your role as a leader is not to sell people on the change event. To create healthy, sustainable change, you must make the conditions and environment that invite, encourage, and enable people to navigate the change journey.
Sustainable change emerges when leaders focus less on persuasion and more on preparation.
Trap #3: Confusing Buy-in with Commitment
“I don’t know what happened. Everyone bought into the change, but now things are stalling.”
That statement is a common refrain from frustrated leaders. When progress slows, the default conclusion is often that people are resisting.
Leaders frequently confuse buy-in with commitment.
Buy-in reflects agreement. It means people understand and accept the need for change. Commitment, however, is stronger than buy-in. It is the willingness to act, to persist through discomfort, and to follow through when old habits are easier and pressure mounts.
For example, I may fully agree that I need to exercise more. That does not mean I will actually do it.
Buy-in is necessary—but it is not sufficient.
When you misinterpret buy-in as commitment, it’s easy to become frustrated and label people as resistant to change when they fail to take action, don’t follow through, or revert to previous behaviours. As a result, you push harder, making the situation worse instead of better.
These traps make it more challenging to enable change in your organization and your own life.
They can create resistance where none exists.
Ready to break the cycle of resistance to change? Let’s chat
