Expect Resistance & Build Resilience
“There’s something about taking the path of least resistance that makes a lot of sense. But at the same time, we have to figure out which things in life are worth struggling through.
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Let’s take a break from the heavy task of creating change to consider something relatively simple by comparison – electromagnetism. Like me, you may have forgotten Ohm’s Law from high school physics. As a refresher, Ohm said that electrical current passing through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the voltage across those two points. This is often stated as a formula,
V=IR
…in which V=voltage, I=the current, and R=resistance. It can be roughly translated into non-scientific English as
To anyone familiar with the concept of friction, this makes intuitive sense (once you get past the algebra). When you try to push something through a tube, the stuff you’re pushing rubs against the side of the tube, and the tube slows your stuff down. In a sense, as you push your stuff in one direction, the tube pushes back. The amount of pushback you get determines how fast you can push your stuff through that tube. In Ohm’s case, we’re talking about electricity in a wire; since a wire is essentially a tube, and electricity is just stuff, the premise is the same.
When pushing stuff through a tube or running electricity through a wire, resistance is normal and expected, even beneficial. Without resistance, every electrical system would quickly burn itself out in an acrid puff of black smoke called short-circuiting. So resistance plays a positive role, slowing things down so nothing gets out of control.
And the same is true when pushing change through a human system, such as a company or other organization. Resistance to that change is normal and expected, even beneficial. Resistance cannot be avoided, and plays a positive role in slowing things down so nothing gets out of control.
But realistically: When you’re advocating for change, resistance can feellike defeat.
Gestalt teaches that resistance is not defeat. It isn’t a pest or a cancer that must be crushed; it is a healthy, positive, natural balancing force that allows time and space for people inside the system to influence the process, adjust, and survive.
And just as in physics, there is always resistance in proportion to the change you’re trying to push through the system. If you don’t see the resistance, be worried: You’re looking in the wrong places.
The Gestalt approach to resistance challenges a tendency many of us have in thinking that whatever problems we’re solving at the moment are critical, that everyone agrees that the time for action is now, and that the solutions we’re proposing are indisputably wise. It’s always a little bit shocking to discover others’ lack of enthusiasm for our beautiful ideas.
So it has been throughout history. In the 19thcentury, German General Helmuth Karl Berhnard Graf von Moltke wrote, “No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.” And then Mike Tyson updated the idea: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
When you’re trying to make change, resistance can feel like a punch in the face…but it doesn’t have to be a knockout blow. An expression of resistance is an interruption in the change process; and it also provides helpful information about the needs of others in the organization. Each instance of pushback you receive is an opportunity to improve your plans going forward. This mindset requires empathy and compassion for the people in your system, and an acceptance that someone else’s reality is valid even if it doesn’t align so perfectly with yours.
The pushback will come, and it may cause you to falter. Hopefully, these concepts will make it easier for you to make meaning of the resistance you experience, and keep you from losing hope.
A clear understanding of resistance can build your personal resilience, protecting yourself against the impulse to over-react or freak out. Anticipate resistance as a way to inoculate yourself against overconfidence and narcissism, allowing you to stay on track to continue your change efforts.
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Note: Many thanks to my colleague Harold Hill for sharing with me the insightful connection between Ohm’s Law and Gestalt’s view of resistance in human systems…and for reminding me of why I didn’t become an electrical engineer.
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