# Change and Consistency By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2023-08-04 Within organizations, one will encounter a variety of people. These people are different in a range of characteristics. One important characteristic is the degree to which one is open to change. Some people seek perpetual change; others crave consistency. People exist all along the spectrum between these two extremes. In the weighted aggregate, an organization will also exist somewhere along this spectrum. Change and consistency are both risky and potentially beneficial. It isn’t that one is “right” and the other “wrong.” Instead, each is useful to a degree and within a specific context. Therefore, organizations benefit from interrogating resistance to change. Sometimes resistance is warranted. Sometimes it isn’t. Implementing organizational change requires overcoming organizational resistance. Understanding the basis of resistance is essential for estimating the force behind entrenched opposition. Often an attempt is made to marginalize the resistance by saying something dismissive like “people simply resist change.” It is important to understand why people resist change. It could be fear of an unknown, precarious future. It could be resentment toward a unilateral renegotiation of the employment contract, in which the organization expects people to do more work for the same salary. Maybe the person is simply “sticking it to the man.” Resistance can capture a multitude of motivations. Suppose an organization is committed to implementing a change. In that case, they must understand specific resistance and its specific motivations, or one can only achieve a momentary stalemate in the ongoing battle between organizational consistency and change. #### Related Items [[Change]] [[Consistency of change]] [[Organization]] [[Resistance]] [[Beliefs]] [[People]]