Your team is pushing back on a new engineering change. How do you turn resistance into support?
Facing pushback on an engineering change can be challenging, but turning resistance into support is achievable with the right approach. Here's how to foster a collaborative environment:
What strategies have you found effective in managing team resistance?
Your team is pushing back on a new engineering change. How do you turn resistance into support?
Facing pushback on an engineering change can be challenging, but turning resistance into support is achievable with the right approach. Here's how to foster a collaborative environment:
What strategies have you found effective in managing team resistance?
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Always explain the Vision and why the change is needed and how the it will make their life easier and how it will benefit the company. I’ve found that once you go through this in detail, most engineers give you their support.
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To address resistance, I engage the team in open discussions to understand concerns, highlighting how the change aligns with goals and benefits them. I provide clear data, address misconceptions, and involve them in refining implementation. Offering training and phased adoption helps build confidence, turning skepticism into ownership and support.
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When my team pushes back on an engineering change, I first assess the situation. If we’re aligned on goals and roles with strong engagement, it may be miscommunication. Then, demonstrating the change in action and highlighting its benefits often clears things up. If some are on board while others resist, it may be due to uneven impacts on workloads or individual objectives. I address their concerns directly, and if I can’t mitigate the impact, I move into the impact zone. They know I believe in the change if I will take the hit as well. If there’s broad pushback from my leaders, I pause to reevaluate. I hired them because I trust their expertise. Their collective concern signals that I need to reconsider and possibly adjust my approach.
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When facing resistance to a new engineering change, foster collaboration by involving the team in the decision-making process. Begin by understanding their concerns and addressing them with transparency. Highlight the benefits of the change, such as improved efficiency or reduced workload, and provide data or examples to support your case. Encourage open dialogue and involve team members in identifying potential solutions or adaptations. By valuing their input and aligning the change with shared goals, you can transform resistance into ownership and support, fostering a more cohesive and motivated team.
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Summary: Listen, Clarify, Involve, Address, Recognize As an Associate Director of Engineering, I start by (listen)ing to the team's concerns to understand their perspective (it could be technical, procedural, or cultural). Next, I (clarify) the purpose of the change, connecting it to company goals and highlighting how it benefits the team. I (involve) them by incorporating their feedback, fostering ownership and trust. Together, we (address) risks and challenges, ensuring the approach is both practical and effective. Once aligned, I (recognize) their efforts and celebrate milestones, reinforcing the value of collaboration and adaptability.
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Understand the team's concerns, provide details about the change content and why it would benefit the product or project. Involve the team actively, ask them for their ideas on how to improve the implementation, be flexible to listen and adjust the plan based on their valuable input. Keep the team regularly informed about the status and praise them for their importance to the success, this may help you to get the team on your side next time.
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One thing I’ve found helpful is to focus on the driver behind the change from the client’s perspective. If you can demonstrate to the team how the design would cause trouble during execution and what sort of questions/confusions would arise, the tone of the conversation changes entirely and that’s when you start seeing the buy-in from the team. Good engineers are very proud of their work and are usually too deep into the weeds, resulting in some practical aspects of their work slipping through occasionally. Once you clearly explain the implications, I’ve found them very keen to get on board with the change (and even come up with some great new solutions!)
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Whenever the team or anyone individual is showing resistance for solution it means we are not at the best explanation of problem following which solution cannot be understood. Whenever you have this situation, step back on explaining the problem or it can be customer new requirements. Write down again all the requirements, and start again the brainstorming for solution and conclude why the solution we selected is best (in terms of cost/timing/ phase of project), thus need engineering change. Resistance sometime comes due to ego - this factor must be identified and isolated asap. When presenting to team - decision matrix is the best way to present solutions. If you are going with one solution will be hard to digest.
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Under this condition as a good leader, we have to take a few steps in under mention sequence:- 1. Listen and Understand the Concerns 2. Clarify the Purpose and Benefits 3. Involve the Team in the Decision-Making Process 4. Address the Risks and Concerns. 5. Provide Training or Resources 6. Communicate Support and Leadership 7. Highlight Short-Term Wins 8. Build a Feedback Loop 9. Address Emotional Reactions 10. Maintain Flexibility and build trust among the team.
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It is inherently human trait to have resistance to change. There might also be a past initiative that has turned sour which creates distrust in the process. I would do the following. 1. Announce the change companywide with details on the expected outcome and how it shall help all stakeholder groups and a clear timeline of implementation. 2. Once announced, set an open forum for criticism, concerns and feedback for the change for a fixed time. 3. Analyze, categorize and evaluate the merits of the feedback, reassess and adjust the change accordingly. 4. Communicate the findings and changes due to findings. 5. Once implemented, communicate outcome periodically both positive and negative. Honest and open communication is the key.
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