There are a few in every bunch: the naysayers, the predictors of disaster, the ones who dig in their heels and fight you at every turn. What would a change initiative be without them?

No matter how well planned your efforts, you can’t avoid change resisters in the management ranks. They are a fact of organizational life, and you’d be wise to accept them, to plan for them, and, indeed, to love them.

Love them? Yes—they often hold a value many firms never bother to tap.

Macrostrategies do not suffice

Most change programs include top-tier strategies for overcoming employee resistance by building a sense of urgency, creating feelings of inclusion and empowerment, and providing clear communication.

But although these are essential elements, they do not necessarily address resistance among individuals or small groups—where it can be at its most nefarious. No, one cannot and should not try to win over everyone.

Focus your efforts where they’ll have the most impact. Consider the following:

§          Where would resistance be most harmful? In what areas could it be crippling during the change process? Focus on these areas first.

§          Where might resistance have spreading power? In every firm, there are individuals whose influence extends well beyond their roles. If they’re not with you, they can kill you. One proven approach: Get them involved in managing the initiative from the start.

§          Where might resistance run the deepest? Who has the most to lose? Surveys can help scout out pockets of resistance among units. Even anonymous polls gauging attitudes toward change can reveal important trends.

Once you’ve designated the areas of greatest resistance, begin an aggressive plan to understand it, make use of it, and overcome it.

They might have a point

One of the biggest mistakes change leaders can make is to assume that resistance is without merit—and in the heat of the moment, it’s awfully tempting to do so.

“It’s important to assess whether or not a resister has sound business reasons for not changing,” says strategy consultant Phyllis Ezop, founder of Ezop and Associates in La Grange Park, Illinois. “Resisters who understand the business well can shed valuable insights about how proposed changes might be modified to increase the odds for success.”

Some encourage resistance because it can help point out potential objections of tough clients and wary consumers, notes Larina Kase, founder and president of Philadelphia-based Performance & Success Coaching.

Giving resisters their day in court can do more than reveal potential pitfalls; it can turn them into powerful supporters, says Ezop.

Deconstruct and rebuild

The key to turning resisters around is to deconstruct their objections and rebuild their points of view, says Kaihan Krippendorff, president of the Strategy Learning Center in Miami Beach, Florida, a business education firm, and author of The Art of the Advantage: 36 Strategies to Seize the Competitive Edge (Thomson Texere, 2003).

Consider the following three lessons from Krippendorff’s own change efforts. 

1.       Core beliefs hinder change. Inquiry into the reason why one of Krippendorff’s managers resisted the change program revealed that he believed it was running well and could improve only with added resources not associated with the change effort. This core belief made him blind to the change’s benefits.

2.        Beliefs are artificial. Dissecting how beliefs form reveals that they rest on a shaky combination of logic and selected evidence, and they persist in language. Identify the logic, evidence and language on which your target belief depends. 

3.       Beliefs can be replaced. Once you have identified your target belief’s weak point, attack it with alternative language, logic or evidence that focuses on positive outcomes of the change program. Recasting hurdles as doors to bigger opportunities is a classic example. 

And when all else fails, several experts note, don’t be afraid to address a question often on resisters’ minds: What’s in it for me? 

(Paul Michelman is editorial director of Harvard Business Online.)

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