What resistance training can teach us about change management

I like and I don't like resistance training.

Whenever I am about to start a training session, my mind resists. It finds thousand excuses to avoid it. I don't feel like working hard and getting uncomfortable. I start fighting against myself.

When I finally overcome my own resistance and start the session, it is always hard at first. My muscles get tense, my heart-rate rises. My breathing struggle to find its rhythm. But as I lead my muscles to work against my bodyweight or free weights, this tension transforms into increased energy, determination and even pleasure. 

At the end of my session, I am tired, but satisfied. Ready to conquer the world! (At least, in my mind because my muscles now need a break.) 

Sessions after sessions, I am getting stronger. I gain confidence and feel more courageous to tackle the next challenge. I want to keep doing it:)

Unless I have pushed too hard and haven't recovered enough. In these cases, I find myself unable to find the resources to complete a session. I get frustrated and think of quitting. 

There are also days where I am ready physically, but don't feel like pushing pass the initial discomfort (it is always uncomfortable at the beginning of a session).

In these situations, I draw on my past experience to find motivation (I know I will feel better after), on why training is important to me (for my health, including mental), and on support from others. Having someone to train with or to keep you accountable to your goals and habits also help you go through valleys. 

Thinking about my experience with resistance training, it made me think of change management. 

Adapting to change is like resistance training

The feeling resistance is normal and part of the learning and growth process.

Resistance training (also called strength training or weight training) increases muscle strength by making your muscles work against a weight or force. 

When our muscles resist against the weight, it generates a stress response in our body that mobilises energy and resources to react and adapt. But it is only during the recovery following the training that the growth happens.

Dr Huberman (neruoscientist) has shared that to learn and remember anything, we also need to put ourselves under a certain level of stress to raise our alertness and trigger our adaptive response. We need to disrupt thinking patterns or draw our attention to what is happening. He also adds that it is during the sleep following the learning event that we integrate what is worth remembering into our current programming and long term memory.

Change in organisations disrupts habits and requires people to adapt

What we call resistance to change is in my view the normal stress response we experience when things change in our world. The stress response signals to us that things are different and we need to pay attention. 

That stress response is often experienced as discomfort, agitation or tension. In most cases, the stress response or initial resistance is positive and a sign we are trying to understand if there is a threat, what we it means to us (and our identity) and what we need to do.  

Resistance training applied to change management

Learning from resistance training, I thought that supporting people through change requires us to carefully plan their 'resistance training'. 

By that I mean managing 'stressors' by adapting the number, type, size and frequency of changes they have to pay attention to as well as rest and recovery time to their ability to adapt and learn, in this moment. It also means providing additional support and tools as needed.

There are many parallels we can draw from this analogy. Here are a few tips that comes to mind that can help you better manage change by better managing employees' stressors and supporting them in responding to these in healthy ways.

Shift mindset regarding resistance

Help employees and managers see discomfort and initial resistance as a normal and positive stress response: it is preparing them to pay attention, learn and adapt. 

Carefully dose the change

You want to find the happy middle between boredom and overtaxed where there is just enough challenge to support growth and learning. If possible, when planning a milestone where employees will need to learn and adapt to a new tool for example, you may want to reduce their workload around that time.

Focus on mutual support

Create conditions for employees to support one another and can have access to someone to ask questions and seek additional help as needed. Together we feel safer and are stronger!

Pay attention to signs of stress

If employees are in fight or flight mode, open the dialogue with them to explore what they need to get back under manageable stress levels.

Pace the change

Plan rest and integration periods on the change journey and be clear when a push will be needed. You may want to periodise your efforts like we do with resistance training over the course of the week, month and year.

Help them find their why

Make sure employees can find meaningful reasons for them to change so they feel that the effort is worthwhile. This includes helping them find their own why, i.e. what's in it for me. 

Celebrate progress

When we see that our efforts lead to results, we are more inclined to persevere. When the success is shared, it also tends to duplicate our motivation.

Create sense of possibility 

Help employees reconnect to past successes or share experiences to find their sense of self-efficacy. We need to believe we can. And we tend to believe it when we have experienced something similar before and have been able to go through it or when we hear from someone like us who has.

At the end of the day, if you want employees to embrace change, they need to have a positive experience with it. When we successfully adapt to change, we feel more confident and good about ourselves and we are more open to another challenge. 

Same with resistance training. If you push pass the initial discomfort and work just hard enough, you feel good about yourself. If you allow for sufficient recovery, you grow and can see and feel the results. All together, you are more inclined to repeat the experience. 

Add to this that if this is a shared experience, you built connections with others and boost your collective courage.

Not sure where to start or what your team needs in this moment to be "ready"? Or you want to work with someone to help you think through how you are going to support your employees during upcoming changes (known and unpredictable) while ensuring their well-being? 

Book a call and we will chat. I may be able to provide some useful guidance to help you move forward with more confidence.