Dealing with Resistance to Fixing Organizational Drag

I wrote an article on why I believe we need to focus on organizational drag (and even provided a potential easy fix).  If I managed to convince you, and you’ve got some ideas, but you feel stuck as no one around you seems to be concerned, I’m sure your next question is: that’s great, but what next? 

I think the first thing is getting comfortable with the fact that things need to change, and the status quo no longer works.  This means being prepared to face resistance and becoming unpopular.  We all know that change isn’t easy.  And it’s harder when it’s put on someone, whether they asked for it or not – this includes your boss. 

I’ve worked for both types of bosses: those that actively encourage reducing organizational drag, and those that say they actively encourage reducing organizational drag but actually don’t.  While the former generally leads to an easier experience, it’s likely that you will find someone resisting change on your path either way.  So if you want to fix organizational drag, get comfortable with the idea of being unpopular.

Trying to effect change means lots of people telling you that you are wrong.  I’ve had people complain about a broken process one week, and when you come back a week later with suggested changes, they say, ‘well if it’s not broke why fix it’.  As much as I’ll want to say, ‘if it’s not broke then why were you complaining about it?’, I hold my tongue in cheek.  Instead, my standard responses are generally:

• Why wait for it to break before making it better?

• What if we can do it faster and then spend more of our time on value-add activities?

• How about if we can make it more cost effective and then put the savings towards another initiative that will benefit us?

• Why wouldn’t we make changes when we have a responsibility to the Board and the shareholders to mitigate operational risk and this will help achieve that?

• Don’t you feel that as employees of this company we have a responsibility to make sure we are using our, and others, time in the most effective and reasonable ways possible?

You need to have a thick skin and you need resilience to keep going when faced with resistance.  It’s not easy but it’s certainly worthwhile when you get to the other side.  Just don’t expect to get thanked by anyone when you do as it may not come – it takes a certain level of maturity and confidence to see the beauty in disrupting the status quo, and I’ve realized not all managers have that.  So don’t do it for them and don’t do it for the praise that may never come.  Do it for you, and for the customers, and people who will benefit.  Do it for your teammates and the people around you who want to do it too but otherwise wouldn’t have the courage to do so without you paving the way for them.

Just remember, as difficult as change is for you, it’s more difficult for those that didn’t ask for it, or didn’t have the idea to make change, so do so with compassion and empathy.  Make other’s feel a part of the journey, rather than part of the problem.  I find if I reach out to them in the early stages of planning and solicit their advice, they will react more favourably later on in the journey when I propose a solution.  You’ll get extra bonus points when you explain the rationale of your changes based on the feedback they had given.  At the end of the day, most people want to feel as if they’ve made valuable contributions so give them that opportunity. 

Take comfort in knowing that the unpopularity that comes with reducing organizational drag is often only temporary because once you demonstrate that you can make things more efficient, you win friends and allies and build a reputation of a visionary and a changemaker.  And with that, each time you need to make a change, it becomes a little bit easier to execute. 

Thoughts and opinions are purely my own, no ChatGPT here.  The above is just a brief conceptual summary, for more specific details, feel free to use ChatGPT.  I’d suggest a prompt along the lines of:

I would like to reduce organizational drag in my organization and have identified [this process] as something we should fix.  I anticipate that I will need buy-in from the following departments [XYZ] and that it will be difficult for [X department] to accept given [reason].  Can you help me build a compelling argument to explain why we need to change, how it will benefit them, and what support I need from them?