Diagnostics for Change: 8 signs your team or group is dealing with unaddressed tension or resistance (and 3 ideas of what to do about it)
Signs of resistance and tension in groups and teams often go unnoticed at first.
Which is a missed opportunity! The sooner you notice theses signs bubbling away, the easier it is to deal with (note that easier isn’t the same as easy).
The opposite also tends to be true: the longer resistance and tension are avoided, the harder it gets to deal with. The issues continue to simmer, and productivity and impact suffer.
Read on to discover ways of noticing resistance behaviour in your leadership work, or in your teams, and a few ideas of how to navigate tension in order to more ease-fully and effectively create what you most wish for in your work.
Image: New Yorker Magazine
Three important points:
• Resistance behaviours are not bad or wrong. They are quite understandable and normal human responses to not feeling heard, or able to say what we need to say. Especially if this continues over a long period of time.
• They are non-linear. Don’t expect to always see them happen in a straightforward way.
• They come with the territory of being human and working together. Especially if you are leader – expect resistance! The point isn’t to make these behaviours go away. The point is to be aware of them, and to gain the wisdom that is driving them – more on that later.
Resistance Behaviour:
#1 Sarcastic jokes
These are jokes with an edge that seem to be sending a subtle, passive message.
#2 Repeated Excuses
Excuses that happen three or more times, that undermine decisions or collaborative activity.
#3 Gossip
Communication that happens in cliques, side Teams chats, or in general outside of open conversations all are privy to.
#4 Communication Breakdown
People are not really talking to another. Intermediaries might be sending messages between functions as people avoid one another. Toxic generalisations about whole teams/groups or “us vs. them” dynamics may be present.
#5 Going slow
Behaviour such as postponement or going slow (when people eventually do what they say or are asked, but it’s at a snails pace e.g. taking weeks to reply or confirming attendance) is a common roadblock.
#6 Disruption
Any form of behaviour that is challenging and aims to disrupt a process. This could be lots of questions that aim to undermine a session, overt displays of anger (e.g. slamming doors, leaving meetings).
#7 Strike
Either people outrightly refuse to do certain tasks, fulfil certain roles or attend certain functions, or take part in union strikes or public protests.
#8 Withdraw
High turnover rate or regular threats of quitting are common. People may go on the offensive – for example, taking out a grievance or deliberately sabotaging someone’s career. At this stage, there is no longer a wish to stay in relationship, so the behaviour will be at it’s most obvious and often sadly, the most harmful, and hardest to address in terms of energy, attention, and other resources.
These behaviours do not have to be problems. They can be opportunities.
Instead of ignoring, blaming or judging the behaviour (which, spoiler alert, does not tend to make the issues go away) we might invite ourselves to recognise the resistance behaviour and explore what is under the surface. If we can do this skilfully, we can address problems and dynamics before they start to leak energy, drain potential, and cause delays and limits in our impact.
We will never get rid of resistance completely but by shifting how we respond to it and integrating the valuable insight it offers we can create more robust, wiser, adaptive, and healthy cultures.
So, how might we address resistance behaviour?
Create safety to say what needs to be said. The more people feel able to risk saying their view, the less resistance or tension builds up.
Here are three ideas for how to do that:
#1 Become aware of your own resistance behaviour and that of others.
What is your go-to resistance behaviour? Most of us have some that we express most often. What is your reaction when someone tells you what to do? What are other’s reactions to you when you tell them what to do? Where do you notice resistance behaviour in day-to-day interactions? Diagnosing the behaviour can in itself be helpful, as you build more awareness of dynamics at play and can consider appropriate ways to support a more effective process.
#2 Create a climate of difference
Encourage others to share their own views – especially if they are different than the majority, or your own. This is particularly important if you hold a position of formal power. Do not ignore or scapegoat differences. The person with a different view may have valuable insight to offer – be curious about what this is. This doesn’t mean handing over your authority – you can listen to other views while retaining a right to disagree.
#3 Make participative decisions
When a majority decision is made, ask people who may have opposed it (subtly or overtly) what they need to come along with the decision. Weave in their insight into how you move forward. This will reduce tension and resistance in your implementation and build more participative cultures with less resistance build up going forward.
Ideas for reflection:
- What happens when someone tells you what to do? Or when you feel your views will not be heard? Do you notice any resistance behaviour that you “go to”?
- What resistance behaviour do you observe in others, or in your work systems?
- When have you made an autocratic style decision? What was the impact? When have you made decisions in more participative ways? What was the impact?
Want more insight or support building these skills?
I’m Francesca, a group facilitator, conflict transformation practitioner, and trainer guiding culture change work at the University.
If you are interested in learning these skills, you are welcome to get in touch for an exploratory conversation about how I might support you or your team: fpagni@ed.ac.uk
