5 Thoughts On Why Leaders Resist Change

Most people would agree that innovation is important. It's what creates new products, inspires people, and helps us improve. And yet, so many people love the idea of innovation more than actually doing it.

The truth is that change is scary. Why take a risk when everything seems to be going fine the way it is. Why resist the very thing we know is important for any individual, team, or organization to adapt, grow, and thrive?

Here are five thoughts on why leaders can resist change.

1) It has worked in the past

If it ain't broke, don't fix it is terrible advice. Just because something is working to some degree does not mean it never needs to be adjusted. This is why Facebook has dominated for so long while other social media apps and networks have risen and faded. Facebook is always tweaking and changing. When they do, everyone gets mad about it, and then they use it more than ever.

Just because something worked before does not mean it will work again. Or maybe it will work again, but not nearly as well as something else will. Culture and society changes rapidly in our technological age, and often we realize too late that we should have changed much sooner. Relying on something simply because it worked in the past is a big reason why leaders resist change.

2) New is somehow considered bad

In my experience, there is seems to be this thought that new somehow equals bad. And not bad as in not a good idea, bad as in it's some how intrinsically worse.

For example, for me being in vocational ministry, style of music can be a quite contentious issue for some. When churches started using drums or amplified instruments, many thought it was a bad thing, and not just because they didn't prefer that style. Many thought it was somehow wrong.

But we forget that everything was new at some point. Using my example, church organ's were a new idea once. The classic hymns people love to sing were new once; they didn't always exist. It's one thing to not like a new idea because you don't think it will work for some reason, but we have to be careful that we don't assume that new equals bad.

3) It's intimidating to learn something new

Another reason leaders resist change is because in order to learn something new, we have to admit we need help and don't know everything. It can be easier to resist change under the guise of "I think that's a bad idea" rather than having to go through the process of learning something new and revealing that you as a leader don't know everything.

Plus, why learn something new when the old way seems to be working fine? Because we believe if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Which as we have seen, isn't always a good idea.

4) Things are broken and we don't see it

The irony often is that when things are broken or inefficient, they often have been for some time and the key leader or leaders don't see it because they've been stuck in it for so long.

Unfortunately, many times when this occurs it is because the leader has avoided the warning signs. Either they have excused certain things or reasons for changing, or they have intimated those they lead so much that everyone is too afraid say anything; in either case, it's on the leader.

5) The new idea wasn't ours

Jealousy and pride can be big contributors as to why leaders resist change. We don't want to see someone else get the credit or praise for a new idea, and so we try to suppress it altogether (even if we also like the idea). It's not that we don't want to change, it's just that the change didn't come from us.