Prosci Change Management Process – Phase 2 – Managing change

Case Study – The power of resistance; the reluctant CEO

The following case study illustrates how comfort with the status quo and resistance to change can
result in delays, productivityImportant
loss and possible failure of a project.
Instructions:

To reduce cost and improve Please

customer service,
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customer contact centers across
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several divisions. A consultant was
to prepare implementation plans. The project
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and key managers in the existing customer care centers began resisting the change. In some cases
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or miss key decision-making meetings. Information
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With the project at a stand-still, the CEO requested an emergency briefing with his leadership
team. To prepare for this status report, the consultants conducted interviews with key managers
throughout each department.Simply deleteidentified
They quickly this boxato begin.in an existing customer care
manager
center who viewed his job at risk with the potential change. Arguments against the change
initiated by this manager were spreading throughout the ranks. His supervisors were the same
people who were presumably threatening to leave the organization.

Even armed with this information, the CEO remained reluctant to take definitive action. The only
recourse at this stage was reassignment or termination of this manager. Both options could have
negative fall-out for the company and the affected manager. The CEO was faced with a stalled
project and a potentially lose-lose decision for a long-tenured manager.

In the case study, a senior manager of one of the existing customer care centers was a severe and
persistent source of resistance. To make matters more complex, this company had a long history
and reputation of taking care of employees and building a sense of “family” in the workplace.
Most of the leadership team had been with the company for 20 years or more. Taking decisive
action with this manager was therefore problematic and for months no action was taken.

Finally, the impact of this single manager’s behavior on the project and on the future of the
change was so visible and contagious that the CEO had to intervene. If effective change
management had been used with this manager at the initiation of the project, or if the resistance to
change had been addressed earlier, most, if not all, of the negative consequences could have been
avoided.

Think about the proactive and reactive steps the reluctant CEO could have taken to
manage the resistance.

© Prosci. Used with permission under license from Prosci.Version 4.05.1