What strategies can you use to navigate conflicts with colleagues who resist change?

In my experience, people don't resist change, they resist loss. When we understand this reality, the first step is to understand what loss the person is resisting. Are they facing the loss of a certain amount of flexibility? Prestige? Autonomy? Whatever it may be, empathizing with this loss is the first step to navigating this conflict.

In my experience, an effective strategy to navigate conflicts with colleagues is to first find a safe space for the conversation to understand the other person's perspective. This space should be comfortable, devoid of distractions. Additionally, in order to understand their perspective, we must come from a place of curiosity to truly understand why they are resisting change, what their frustrations and concerns are. Curiosity creates a more fruitful conversation and shows the other person you are interested in hearing their perspective, and they will be more inclined to open up. For example, ask questions such as, "what's got you frustrated the most about this change? What are your main concerns?

1. Gain an understanding of what they fear the most about the change 2. Address each point contributing to their fear by offering solid data on how it has worked in another group/company 3. Provide tangible outcomes experienced from number 2, and show them how it is possible within and across their teams. If they cannot point to the positive outcomes generated from the change you seek to implement, they are less likely to see it as "their" reality.

I think having clear rules about the behaviour among colleagues should be the basis to avoid conflicts in general. Establishing rules to resolve them should be done as well. For example, creating regular meetings to expose disturbing behaviour you observed can be useful for everyone.

Communicating clearly and respectfully is essential to any conflict discussion. Often times, people have difficulty doing this because our emotions can sometimes get in the way, causing us to respond impulsively, making a bad situation worse. To mitigate this, I recommend using the AAA Method--a 3 stop process to communicating clearly and concisely while avoiding kneejerk reactions: 1, Assess your emotions; 2, Analyze your emotions and it's impact on the situation. Once you've completed those 2 steps, you can take a more measured approach and go to step 3, which is Act (communicate thoughtfully and and respectfully). The only way this works is with practice and constant self-awareness to follow the 3 step process.

One of the primary sources of conflict is when one person seeks to collaborate or compromise and the other person seeks to compete. Understanding the other person's conflict styles will help you adapt to the situation accordingly. One of the things you can do is to communicate your needs up front and let them know what you want out of the situation. Next, ask the other person what they want out of the situation. This level of transparency makes it easier to build trust and seek a win-win outcome.

In my experience, it's extremely effective to have regular touch points to revisit the change, understand what is working and what is not working, and determine what, if any adjustments are needed. This level of follow through shows a commitment to improve and help others.

In my experience, a mediator or a coach can be highly effective in helping resolve the conflict situation because they can be more objective and they can provide some helpful strategies to resolve it. Having HR intervene can take a while to resolve and there is more red tape involved. Other helpful resources include the book, How to Work with Jerks, Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and conflict management training.