Taking Advantage of Resistance to Change (and the TOC Thinking Processes) to Improve Improvements (Part 7)

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Addressing Layer 6 – Lack of follow-through even after agreement to proceed with the solution (due to unverbalized fear or concerns)

The vast majority of sources of resistance can be dealt with by moving through the first five layers as fully as possible, aided by the TOC Thinking Processes. Sometimes, however, despite the best efforts at soliciting concerns or obstacles, unstated fears about the change may remain. For example, it might be embarrassing, or impolitic, to oppose a change due to a fear of losing status or responsibility. Another could be a residual concern from previous attempts at change – the sense that his will be “just another initiative du jour.” The result of either response could be lip service, or foot dragging.

The best way around Layer 6 is effective leadership and management of the implementation. Demonstrating faith in the plan and consistency in walking the talk through implementation of the new policies needed to achieve the desired effects will go a long way to proving that this effort is for real. Another way to confirm that the implementation is moving ahead in a timely fashion is the use the Prerequisite and Transition Trees as the basis for a project network against which effective project management scheduling and tracking processes can be applied. Accountability for actions and IOs and follow-up on their completion will help to identify any “dragging feet.”

Finally, while there is no Thinking Process tool explicitly designed to address Layer 6 issues, the combination of the Negative Branch Reservation and an intuitive management team may actually help to identify issues like status loss without the embarrassment of the person involved having to bring it up him or herself.

Continued (Part 8) >>>

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This article was originally presented at and included in the proceedings of the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) Solutions Conference (Dallas, May, 2001) by Francis S. "Frank" Patrick of Focused Performance. It is broken down here into sections for ease of reading on-line. For off-line reading and sharing, it can be downloaded in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format at resistancetext.pdf. The associated presentation handout can also be downloaded at resistanceslides.pdf.

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Part 1 -- Abstract, Introduction, and Underlying Concepts of the TOC Thinking Processes

Part 2 -- Layer 1 -- Lack of agreement on the problem
-- The Core Conflict Cloud (CCC) and the Current Reality Tree (CRT)

Part 3 -- Layer 2 -- Lack of direction for a solution
-- Evaporating the Core Conflict Cloud

Part 4 -- Layer 3 -- Lack of agreement that the solution will truly address the problem
-- The Future Reality Tree (FRT)

Part 5 -- Layer 4 -- Concern that the solution will lead to new undesirable side effects
-- The Negative Branch Reservation (NBR)

Part 6 -- Layer 5 -- Lack of a clear path around obstacles to the solution
-- The Prerequisite Tree (PRT) and Transition Tree (TT)

Part 7 -- Layer 6 -- Lack of follow-through even after agreement to proceed with the solution
-- Unverbalized fear or concerns

Part 8 --Summary -- Layers of Resistance and Thinking Process tools to deal with them
-- What to change?
-- To what to change to?
-- How to make the change happen?

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