Re: Resistance to change LO641

Keith Cowan (cowan@pci.on.ca)
Sat, 1 Apr 1995 17:25:23 -0500 (EST)

Replying to LO606 --

> approach as the foundation. Essentially, we were saying, find a way to
> align the wants of the other person with the desired change (the framing
> issue) and all his/her energy will move to support change rather than
> oppose it. The executives immediately smelled something inauthentic in
> this approach, and labeled it "manipulative". We were unable to redesign
> so as to meet this objection, since the methodology involved finding out
> the presumed "opponent" wants and then tailoring your approach to feed
> those feelings. The stigma attached to this module after only a couple of
> deliveries proved too difficult to shake, and we dropped the module from
> the training after only two excursions...
> jack@his.com

A compromise approach sometimes works. Reframe the the change in several
different dialects and ask the resistor to imagine how they might support
any one of them with appropriate changes or nuances. This puts the action
and involvement on the resistor and, while it will not work always, it is
certainly not "manipulative"...

-- 
Keith Cowan       Phone: (416)565-6253           FAX: (905)858-7131
Toronto        Internet: cowan@pci.on.ca  Compuserve: 72212,51