Dear Bob ... I just recently switched organizations. You are correct in your recent column, The best golf lesson I ever had. People don't resist change, only change that they perceive may be bad for them. The one thing you're missing is that many of the people may have something else going on. I noticed that this new joint - people have a 'passive aggressive' tendency. They all acknowledge that things are messe Dear Bob …I just recently switched organizations. You are correct in your recent column, The best golf lesson I ever had. People don’t resist change, only change that they perceive may be bad for them.The one thing you’re missing is that many of the people may have something else going on. I noticed that this new joint – people have a ‘passive aggressive’ tendency. They all acknowledge that things are messed up, but any recommendation is greeted with, “No way, we can’t do that…” This is for any and every change that is suggested. They have done things the same dysfunctional way for 50 years, they are really resisting any suggestion. Sometimes you just have to say, ‘we’re making a change’, let people be a little uncomfortable for a few weeks and help them through the discomfort.I have cases where people are working full time to keep an old crappy application running, they hate what they are working on, and complain about how crappy it is all the time. I suggested replacing the crappy application and them leading the effort to develop a new application and processes to solve the problem and they went nuts.Very interesting … – Leading the resistance to the resistanceDear Resistance resistor …You are, of course, right. I’ve written about this symptom, in a column titled The Assumption of the Present. And I certainly agree, there are plenty of situations in which change can’t be optional. Especially in those circumstances, starting with small, bite-sized, easily swallowed improvements is an important ingredient in making change happen. In environments like yours, you can bet that sometime in the past, recent enough for the organizational memory to retain them, were situations in which an employee tried to improve things and was punished for doing so.Which is to say, people resist change for a reason. Sometimes, understanding the reason is less important than recognizing than there is one, sometimes not. In any event, it’s important to establish, clearly and inarguably, that the rules have now changed and the road to personal success is to actively support the needed improvements.By the way, I phrased that carefully. There’s a huge difference between explaining to employees that those who get on board and work to make things better will find a lot of opportunity and telling them that unless they get on board they’d better find a different place to work. This kind of situations calls for more carrot than stick, emphasizing the road to success, not the road to survival. – Bob ——– Technology Industry