Rod Willis discusses resistance to change from a leader's perspective based on research of 15 seasoned practitioners representing over 55 change programs. The research found that over 65% of challenges to change were related to issues below the typical "barrier to change" focus on skills and awareness, such as interpersonal relationships, team dynamics, and understanding human motivation. An innovation audit framework was developed and tested to help organizations better understand group dynamics, relationships, and individual drivers to more successfully manage change initiatives.

1. Resistance to Change
and how to become more Agile
Rod Willis
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Resistance to Change and how to become more Agile
Rod Willis
As an Electronics Engineer, then
manager, and after 25 years working in
the Semiconductor world, living through
many Mergers and Acquisitions.
The People part of the challenge,
became more curious to me.
Resulting in several research projects:
For today’s talk, I am drawing on
Resistance to Change from a Leader’s
Perspective.
This ‘Grow Through Change’ model
emerged as a way of sharing the
challenges many organisations
and projects face on a
repeating basis.
The research base was 15
seasoned practitioners and
leaders of major organisations
and/or change initiatives. This was
across sector and represented more
than 55 change programmes. Report
available from www.academia.edu
at https://goo.gl/QCFLhH
The story so far...

3. Have you seen these issues before?
2: Low awareness regarding Leadership
of Transformation. Different mindsets
perceive different realities!
7: A need to communicate appropriate
Process and Content.
It’s NOT just about broadcasting!
6: Fear of failure, Personal ‘ROI’,
conflict with an individual’s ‘System’
and/or career objectives and
limited Interpersonal Skills
5: Autonomous Motivation: Relatedness,
Mastery, Autonomy for an effective
environment. Understanding of what we are
’DRIVEN’ by : Acquire, Bond, Learn & Defend
1: Lack of clear Purpose
3: Staff involvement, Tipping Point,
Change-cycle (Transition Psychology)
Assimilation capacity overload
4: Old habits die hard, perceived
excessive work, present system is OK,
outdated life-cycle view ‘Group Think’,
limited Team Dynamics understanding
8: Sins of the past, low trust in the
leadership, inadequate training or
support provided. Limited ‘soft skills’
awareness across the organisation.
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Resistance to Change and how to become more Agile
Rod Willis

4. We keep seeing these symptoms 60 years on?
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Resistance to Change and how to become more Agile
Rod Willis
*** There is a REAL Barrier to Change, but it’s NOT RESISTANCE TO CHANGE ***
1: We are trained (in general) to
work above the Barrier to Change
3: More than 65% of the REAL
challenges identified during the
research, were below the Barrier
to Change!!!
2: Increasing SKILLS above the line will not
address the challenge we all face. Several
BOKs point to the Interpersonal
challenges and Team Dynamics, however
they do not embrace them fully!!!
4: It’s no wonder we find change
initiatives repeatedly fall short in
delivering what the stakeholders need!!!
5: We don't Teach People about People!
It’s time we started looking in the ‘right’ place, the
foundations of how we humans work together!!!

5. 'Tuckman's Stages of Team Development
Where are the opportunities to reduce wasted energy?
Forming
Excitement
Anticipation
Anxiety
Optimism
Storming
Reality sets in
Frustration
Dissatisfaction
Adjustment
anxiety
Norming
Shared goals
Team cohesion
Coping
Acceptance
Performing
Teamwork
Cohesiveness
Leadership
Performance
Adjourning
Separation
anxiety
Crisis
Dissatisfaction
Negativity
Next Steps
Options
explored
Skilled
Anticipation
Excitement
Bruce Tuckman is a famous for his research on human
dynamics. He has published a model called 'Tuckman's
Stages of Team Development created in 1965.
The theory had four stages but in 1977, the fifth stage was
added.
Referenced by BOK’s.
If we dig deeper, many find this too
complex or scary
(Powerful when used well)
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6. We set out to create a framework exploring the
foundations of how we humans work together
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Resistance to Change and how to become more Agile
Rod Willis
The Focus
LearningDynamic
Personal+Intra-GroupDynamic
Environment Dynamic
Mindsets, Motivation + Inter-Group Dynamics
Sponsored research 2012-16 n=170
The Innovation Audit
Framework
Most of our BOK’s
focus above the
mid-point

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Resistance to Change and how to become more Agile
Rod Willis
Now tested with > 700 people in 5 years
Tested in Agile Communities across:
Czech Republic, GCC (Oman, UAE), Austria, UK,
Australia, New Zealand & USA

8. TITOLO
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Resistance to Change and how to become more Agile
Rod Willis
Czech Republic
So, what have we concluded
after all this effort?
Understand how to explore Group Dynamics, Inter-personal
relationship at the group level, Motivation and Mindsets.
If you don’t know how, you will fail!!!

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Resistance to Change and how to become more Agile
Rod Willis
IoD + BSC Workshop this Oct 2018
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Environment Dynamic
P4 ED: Leadership micromanagement
P6 ED: It was within the context of an international inter-governmental process
implementing new systems.
P7 ED: Open and trustful
P8 ED: We vary the environment (use multiple venues) and discontinue any that are not
conducive to a good meeting.
P10 ED: Software (O/S & apps) & hardware/infrastructure testing
Learning Dynamic
P6 LD: The group was a project team working to a commonly agreed goal, which at a
practical level simplified collaboration. There where political overtones, but it was part of
the job to be aware and considerate of them.
P8 LD: The team works together well on the whole, but occasionally a member goes off in a
direction of their own choosing, putting self before team, sometimes even neglecting their
role within the team.
P10 LD: No matter the different methods to engage, one member shows no aptitude &/or
desire to improve Pn = the Participant ID
M
ore
Agile

10. These drivers are in force at different levels of
intensity in each of us. When our ‘defend’ driver
is activated, it may feel like that person is being
‘Resistant to Change’.
They are just defending themselves!
We can explore how we develop
relationships based on this
sequence.
Inclusion, Control and Openness.
Inclusion
Control
Openness
The first framework is based on the IA3.0 by Assentire Ltd
The second framework is based on the work of Will Schutz
and his Fundamental Interpersonal Relationship Orientation structure.
The third framework is based on DRIVEN by Paul R. Lawrence; Nitin Nohria.
Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices.
We can explore how we perceive the
environment around a group and the
behaviours within the same group.
The Group Dynamic
Strong agile organisations know how to measure
Group Dynamics, Relationships and explore Drivers
M
ore
Agile
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Resistance to Change and how to become more Agile
Rod Willis

11. Professional tools of the trade
https://goo.gl/VkM4sb Developed by the Culture and Leadership stream of the
Agile Business Consortium
Changing Culture
through Coaching
getcollaborating.com
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Resistance to Change and how to become more Agile
Rod Willis

12. Grazie per l’attenzione.
rod.willis@assentire.net
+44 (0) 7788 457 202
getcollaborating.com getagilemindsets.com assentire.net
Culture, Leadership & Strategy stream
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Resistance to Change and how to become more Agile
Rod Willis