Steve Jackson Faces Resistance to Change

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Finally, assuming that Barnett chooses the former option, Jackson will need to take the opportunity to extend an olive branch. Within the next week, he needs to open communication with Barnett so he can get actual input for why he’s so against the change. This will hopefully give Barnett a chance to communicate his concerns with Jackson in a civil manner in case there’s something Jackson had overlooked. This will then give Jackson an opportunity to address each of his concerns, and to offer him a way to get involved with the project. Since Barnett is a veteran of the company and knows the ins-and-outs, one way he could get involved is by joining a pilot testing group to report any problems with it to make it better. Involving Barnett in the change will hopefully reduce his resistance to it. To once again quote Paul Bregman’s advice, “To avoid the resistance [to change]? Give them control. Let them make decisions.” (Bregman 2009)

The measure for success here will be the amount of civil communication with Barnett. The goal from the start was to get Barnett to stop trying to sabotage the project. If Barnett no longer publicly voices his displeasure with Jackson and the project, or at least finds a way to voice his concerns in a constructive way, the above can be considered successful.

Summary:

Barnett has some reason behind why he’s been trying to sabotage Jackson’s project. Whether he is able to successfully communicate it or not, somebody needs to reach out to him. Since he holds a vendetta against Jackson, management must step in if they hope for the project to succeed. Jackson and Barnett need to be able to speak in a civilized manner, in person, and Barnett needs to actually try the software before he voices such strong opinions about it. As with any project, management support is critical. The degree to which they’re on board can easily be the deciding factor of whether the project is a huge success or whether it crashes and burns.

References:

Inkpen, A. & Pearson, C. (2011), Steve Jackson Faces Resistance to Change. Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Bregman, Peter. (2009, Apr 28). How to Counter Resistance to Change. Harvard Business Review Blog Network. Retrieved from http://blogs.hbr.org/2009/04/how-to-counter-resistance-to-c/

Humphrey, Watts S. (1999, Sep 1). Getting Management Support for Process Improvement. Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon. Retrieved from http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/news-at-sei/wattssep99.cfm

Oswald, Dan. (2011, Jun 9). When Two Employees Hate Each Other. HR Daily Advisor. Retrieved from http://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2011/06/09/when-two-employees-hate-each-other