Reasons for resisting change can be baffling

Sometimes people’s reasons for opposing change are just plain baffling…

Here’s a great story about one of those times.

He was a fresh young consultant engaged on what should have been the simplest, easiest change program ever. No, really, it should. Well, to be completely accurate, it was, then it wasn’t, then it was.

When I think back on my 35-year corporate career, the story of a few short weeks in the life of an engineering firm near Telford in the UK was, without doubt, mind-blowing. I had no idea just how baffling and bizarre resistance to change could be. Now, older and wiser, I believe I know better.

Here’s what happened. The engineering firm needed to renew its heavy-duty machine tools. Although decent quality, if not fully state-of-the-art, when they were purchased in the mid-1930s, they were by now in urgent need of replacement. The idea had been presented to the employees on the shop floor. The shop floor was generally favourable to the idea but required several union meetings to discuss the matter.

After much discussion and occasional heated debate, their shop steward reported back to management that the workers were able to accept management’s proposal. A few minor allowances would need to be increased to account for the training and increased responsibility each machine operator would be taking on. There was a little dickering this way and that, but by and large the proposal went through on the nod.

Several weeks passed during which a general feeling of optimism grew amongst the shop floor workers and spread by osmosis to the rest of the staff. The new machines were cleaner, quieter and more easily managed than the prewar dinosaurs they were getting rid of. The wives were reportedly pleased that the weekly overall wash would be less demanding. All was well. The chief engineer was finally supplied with detailed specifications, maintenance routines and training cadence which he shared with the machine minders on the shop floor.

Then all hell broke loose. “One out, all out!” The cry was heard. The chief shop steward’s ‘Never since the days of the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ speech was dusted off and put to excellent rhetorical use. The deal was off.

“Management’s duplicitous mendacity about the new machinery leaves the workers no choice but to strike until this unacceptable threat has been removed.”  The chief shop steward was in his element. This was like the old days.    

The day of the arrival of the new machinery drew close. The machines had been bought and paid for, and there was no option but to commission them urgently into production. The mood on the shop floor hardened. The spectre of panic stalked the management offices. No one knew what the problem was. Not even the loquacious chief shop steward would explain.

It was perhaps three days before the delivery of the new machines that the General Manager, working late, happened to bump into a junior apprentice in the gent’s toilet on the ground floor. As luck would have it, the lad was a close friend of the General Manager’s son. The two played Rugby League together on the weekends. He and the boy had exchanged a few words after matches.

Taking the opportunity for a confidential chat, the General Manager casually asked, 

“What’s all the fuss on the shop floor about the new machines?”

The apprentice, confidence boosted by having had at least some social interaction with the General Manager, replied.

“I’m not really supposed to say, sir, but it’s the grease.”

“What’s wrong with the grease?”

“It’s mineral grease, sir.”

“What’s wrong with that? It’s cleaner, and it doesn't go off and stink to high heaven like organic grease does.”

“Well, that’s just it, sir. We’re all fanatical coarse fishermen around here, and we use the old grease to grow maggots for fishing. We can’t do that with the mineral grease.”

With the critical cause of resistance finally surfaced, a solution was soon found. The company would place a barrel of organic grease in the yard, and staff would be free to scoop out as much or as little as they wished. Empty barrels would be replaced timeously with full ones.

My first lesson from this was that surfacing both resistance and the reason for resistance early is critical to the success of a change project. My second lesson was that doing this can be mind-bogglingly hard.

Sometimes our colleagues’ reasons are difficult to fathom, and even more difficult to elicit.

As Blaise Pascal once put it, 'The heart has reasons, reason know not of', or something.

Mick@michaelbrawnconsulting.com.au