Level 4

General Resistance Information

Resistance is a way of protecting or defending against change and is used by all kinds of individual’s, institutions and organisations. When working with people, resistance is the one thing that is likely to be encountered on a fairly regular basis because people can be unwilling to make personal changes and will try to prevent others imposing it.

People don’t tend to deal with these underlying conflicting forces directly, instead they usually attempt to employ counter measures to overcome the opposing tactics. This can become a time-consuming activity resulting in a (win or lose) battle of wills.

Resistance causes conflicts, frustrations, stress, it wastes time, delays progress, and decreases efficiency. Therefore, it’s important to understand, identify, assess and find ways to reduce different types of resistance wherever possible. So, the person trying to reduce the resistance may have to prioritise this and make it the focus of the first intervention.