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In the early 1990's I got interested in resistance to change in organizations because my clients were very interested in that topic. I did a literature search in the business press and found that the verb "overcome" preceded the phrase "resistance to change" quite often. Hmmm. As tempting as wanting to overcome resistance might be, my experience suggested that was a risky way to go.
I started studying at The Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and was immediately attracted to the gestalt approach to resistance. They taught that resistance and support were natural reactions to change. And trying to push people over into support would likely increase opposition. A far better approach would be to respect resistance and the person resisting. So, I started trying to discover what that looked like in organizations and what it could look like.
In 1996 I wrote Beyond the Wall of Resistance and revised it in 2011. In 2002 I wrote Why Don't You Want What I Want? Many papers, ,and shorter books followed. Seizing Moments of Possibility (2021) is my latest attempt to make the notion of support and resistance understandable and usable for leaders and fellow consultants. - Rick Maurer
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