I have many years of experience working in the legal industry, a little over 30. In all those years I have been very fortunate to survive drastic changes to the legal business environment. From law firm mergers and layoffs to major changes in leadership and structure, one consistent theme that has helped me survive and prosper is embracing change. I have seen many good people come and go over the years because they resisted the change in their firm’s new policies, leadership, workflow, software, and business models. Those people included attorneys, administrators, and long time friends and colleagues.
It did help that I have an entrepreneurial spirit. Not only did I embrace the change but I also found ways to make it benefit my career. I did not become complacent and wait for my fate, but rather took advantage of the situations and contributed to the change. Sometimes it was a way for me to help the firm reduce costs, create greater efficiencies, or further mitigate their operational risks.
The end result is that I always found a way to make it work for me. I took advantage of my professional advantages, including my network. I know that sounds selfish but my progress always benefited people around me, including my team and even my friends and peers. It advanced their careers, income, and job security as well.
So why do people resist change in the workplace? Quite simply it is a normal human reaction when an individual or group perceives that the changes will be a threat to them. The resistance can be covert or overt and damaging to not only the firm’s progress but also to the career of the persons resisting the change.
There are many reasons why people resist change. To name just a few, the following list reflects the most common reasons.
- Misunderstanding about the need for change — If staff do not understand the need for change you can expect resistance, especially from those who strongly believe the current way of doing things works well…and has done so for the last ten years.
- Fear of the unknown — This is probably the most common reason for resistance. People will only embrace the change if they genuinely believe and feel that the risks of standing still are greater than those of moving forward in a new direction.
- Lack of competence — People will seldom admit that they do not feel they will be able to make the transition to the change if it necessitates a change in skills. They have little confidence in themselves so they resist.
- Low trust — When people don’t believe that they, or the company, can competently manage the change there is likely to be resistance.
Besides the aforementioned, firms can actually contribute to the resistance with poor communication, forced changes, and bureaucratic inertia. Nonetheless, change is inevitable and resistance is counterproductive and problematic.
There is a need for firms to change now more than ever because of fierce competition not only with other firms but also with existing clients. Clients are keeping more work in-house in order to reduce overall legal spend. Innovative technology and solutions, cost reductions, lateral partner movement, and the economy are other motivators that make firms want and need to change. For some firms, change is a survival tactic.
Managing resistance in a firm is very difficult. The resistance can cause project delays, lost revenue, low morale, and a slew of other problems for the firm leaders. Many firms do a wonderful job with communicating and motivating employees to accept the changes and turn their resistance into cooperation. Sometimes, and especially during planned staff redundancies, getting rid of the resistance is much easier than trying to cope with it.
So what should you take away from reading this blog? Well, in one sentence – Instead of resisting change, embrace it and make it work for you!
Chris Gierymski is the Director of Business Development at American LegalNet and can be reached at cgierymski@alncorp.com.
