Resistance is a necessary part of the process.� Whether you are selling stuff, or selling ideas (or even giving them away); whether you are creating change, or teaching students; you can expect to get some resistance.� After all, you are asking people to change something and that is uncomfortable.
With careful planning, however, you can avoid some of the �un-necessary� resistance � resistance that arises from misinformation, misunderstanding and down-right ignorance.
Three Powerful Planning Tools
Three of my favourite tools are:
- Stakeholder Triage
- Communication Schedule
- Transition Plan
In this post, I�ll show you stakeholder triage.� In subsequent blogs, we�ll look at the other two.
Stakeholder Triage
Fascinating fact No 1:� Triage does not imply three of anything.� It comes from the French: �sorting�.
Stakeholder triage is not a full analysis of your stakeholders, any more than medical triage is a full diagnosis of a patient�s condition.� It is, however, a valuable process to quickly assess where to focus your efforts and determine a principal strategy.
There are two dimensions to consider and different practitioners may choose these according to their needs.� My favourites are:
- Attitude
What do you anticipate your potential resister�s attitude will be to your product, service, idea, or change?� By the nature of resistance, you will be focusing on those you predict will have an adverse response, but there is something to be gained by looking at the others too. - Impact
How much impact do you anticipate the resistance from this stakeholder will have upon the case you are trying to make?� You will focus on those who can be most disruptive.
This gives us a simple grid:
The Four Strategies
Now let�s look at four strategies for pre-empting resistance.
Strategy 1:� Woo and Win
Do everything that is ethical to win over your potential resister, by keeping them informed and involving them in discussions.� Spend time with them getting their opinions and building rapport.
Strategy 2:� Support and Encourage
These people are not likely resisters, so do what you can to help them to help you.
Strategy 3:� Engage and Harness
With he potential impact that this group can wield, invest time in winning their support for your efforts to woo and win potential resisters.� Third party endorsements will always have more impact than your own efforts.
Strategy 4:� Monitor and Outvote
You should certainly be prepared to influence this group, but with their low potential impact, also be prepared to limit your commitment.� If their resistance is weak and you can outvote them, then you need not be too concerned.� If, however, the impact of their resistance increases, you need to spot this early and shift to Strategy 1.
The Key Points
- Handling resistance starts with planning
- There are lots of great tools
- A good starting place is a quick triage of potential attitudes and impacts
