Resistance

When Maya announced the new direction for her company, she expected some questions. What she didn’t expect was the quiet pushback — missed deadlines, sidelong comments in meetings, ideas dismissed before they’d even landed.

It wasn’t mutiny. It was something more subtle, and in some ways, harder to address. The vision made sense. The market demanded it. But the energy in the room had shifted, and Maya could feel herself spending more time defending the plan than delivering it.

If you’ve been here, you know resistance can take many shapes:

  • Stakeholders who nod in agreement but stall on action

  • Teams that “yes” you in meetings and “no” you in the execution

  • Early adopters turning into cautious observers

  • Emotional undercurrents you can’t quite name, but can definitely feel

Resistance Isn’t the Enemy — It’s Data

Through a Change Fitness lens, resistance isn’t a brick wall; it’s a signal about capacity, readiness, and trust. It’s feedback on how change is landing for the people who need to live it. When you interpret it this way, resistance shifts from something to fight against to something you can work with. 

Building the Capacity to Lead Through Resistance

Here’s what we focus on together:

  • Reading the type of resistance so you can address the real cause, not just the symptoms

  • Increasing your own bandwidth so you’re not depleted by the pushback

  • Designing messages and moments that create safety without losing momentum

  • Turning early blockers into visible allies

From Friction to Flow

When leaders grow their Change Fitness, they stop seeing resistance as a drain and start using it as leverage. The same people who once slowed the process begin contributing to it. The same meetings that felt tense start producing breakthroughs.

Maya didn’t abandon her strategy. She learned to meet her team where they were, to surface unspoken concerns, and to invite them into shaping the change. Within months, progress sped up — not because the plan got easier, but because the people driving it felt ready to move.

You don’t have to choose between your vision and your team. You can have both — if you know how to build the capacity for change in yourself and in others.