When you're leading a change, it's likely some employees will resist change -- but resist the temptation to demonize them Dear Bob …I’m leading a fairly significant change into our organization. A few of my employees have been resisting it quite vehemently.[ Also on InfoWorld: “In the midst of a tough assignment, don’t be undercut by employees” | Get sage advice on IT careers and management from Bob Lewis in InfoWorld’s Advice Line newsletter. ] I was commiserating with a friend, and he sent me a link to an article by John Engels titled, “Dealing with Terrorists.” I thought it was pretty interesting and wanted your take on it.– Wondering Dear Wondering … Engles describes terrorism in the workplace thusly:In the workplace, terrorists take the form of change resisters who sabotage progress, and high-performing prima donnas who hold their bosses hostage by demanding more than they deserve while infecting the culture with their arrogance and disrespect.Who knew? I thought terrorists killed innocent people by blowing up buildings, trains, and buses. It never occurred to me that an expression of disrespect constituted terrorism. By that measure, every fan who ever shouted “Hey, ump! Wanna borrow my glasses?!?!?” is a terrorist.Engel goes on to state that the defining characteristic of a terrorist is this negotiating tactic: “Give me what I want or I will hurt you.” His advice in how to deal with anyone who resists a business change? Tell them to give you what you want or you will hurt them.What do I think of the article? I think it’s disgraceful. Even worse, it gives bad advice.The article strays very close to a good/evil view of change resistance. The fact, though, is that in WWII we called the good guys the “resistance,” and it used tactics we call terrorism when they are used against us. For whatever it’s worth, I recommend to clients that they think of resistance to change this way: The resisters honestly think the proposed change is a bad idea and that their resistance is an effort to save the organization from a mistake. Whether that view is the result of logical analysis, rationalization, or bad information is a separate matter.Also a separate matter is your responsibility to make sure the change is successful — their honest disagreement doesn’t translate to your having to acquiesce to their position. Quite the opposite: Your responsibility is to make sure the change is successful, to do what you can to persuade the resisters to change their perspective, and to neutralize their impact if you can’t persuade them.Beyond the change management dimension is your equally important responsibility to manage team dynamics. When you have team “members” who don’t accept their responsibility to help the team function in a positive way, you have to deal with them so that they don’t damage the functioning of your organization. And then there’s the third matter, which is the importance of preserving your authority. If you allow publicly insubordinate behavior, everyone else will lose respect for you, which has its own negative consequences.Way back when, I wrote a series of columns on this subject, back when I still appeared in InfoWorld’s print edition: “Where resistance to change comes from,” (9/10/2001), “Elements of a business change program,” (9/24/2001) and “We were the change resisters, and proud of it, too,” (10/8/2001).Among the points they make is that employees don’t resist change because they’re stupid, evil, ornery, or stubborn. They resist change because they quite reasonably expect the change to be bad for them. Decades of corporate behavior has made this their default expectation, and with that expectation, resisting the change is an entirely reasonable response. Want a different response? Do what you can to make the change good for employees and shareholders; make sure supporting the change leads to positive results for those employees who do support it; and communicate, communicate, and communicate some more, because employees have questions and will get their answers from someone. Your choice is whether that someone is you.Most of all, remember advice Sun Tzu gave a long time ago in “The Art of War”: The battle is always for the hearts and minds.If you treat anyone who disagrees with you as a terrorist, it’s a battle you’ll lose, just about every time. – Bob Technology Industry