Why do most change efforts of any substance within organizations fail? Why is failure so pervasive that most people are confident that they need only wait out the flurry of frenzied activity, often for no longer than the run-up to the next period financial report?
Answer: Most "change agents" are completely and ignorantly unfamiliar with the "agents of change." Everyone in a change environment is an agent of change. They are either working to promote change or they are working to obstruct it, consciously or not. The role of the change agent is to identify these agents of change, discover their intelligence, and leverage it to promote change.
Agent 1 (A1) — The Anti-Change Agent
A1 wants to prevent change at all costs. A1 could be motivated by career stage, market, industry, or economic uncertainty, or deeply personal factors. Whatever the case, A1 can be easily detected by their consistent and zealous objection to change with or without substantial facts and data to support their opposition.
The biggest mistake made by Change Agents when dealing with A1? Ignoring, suppressing, or even disciplining, reassigning or terminating them. While A1 can cause a lot of turbulence, they are often the key to successful change. Why? They often know what can and will go wrong as change takes place.
How to Leverage A1
Listen carefully and accept the data they volunteer as early in the intervention as possible, preferably during the define stage of change. Invite them to share their positions, opinions, etc in a formal forum that includes change stakeholders and executives, but not their peers. Give them focused access to ears they normally don't have privy to.
Later, during the test phases of change, you will get a chance to see A1's greatest value firsthand: A1 is the ultimate crash tester. Put the model in front of them and defy them to break it. What you learn during testing will be invaluable and save significant investment loss.