How to Break Through Resistance to Achieve Your Goals?

5 min readFeb 6, 2016

Resistance is good. Any idea, plan or innovation that faces resistance is making change. If you face no resistance, what you are advocating is merely the status quo. After all, no great idea was accepted on day one.

But it is tough. Resistance can also be the death of your idea. People, organizations and culture can squeeze the life out of your innovation. Killing it dead.

One thing is for sure, the sheer brilliance of your innovation is not good enough. You may see the sparkle of a changed world, while others see nothing but a problem.

James Dyson, the inventor of the bag less vacuum, is a classic case. He invented a breakthrough consumer product. His bag less vacuum design never lost suction. The technology was revolutionary. He thought the industry great and good would applaud and embrace his ingenuity. Yet none of the vacuum cleaner executives he presented his invention to were impressed. Some saw it as a “threat” to an enormous, established business. Others saw a marginal toy. All rejected it. As a result, Dyson was forced to go it alone. Today Dyson produces vacuum cleaners, hand dryers, bladeless fans and heaters and it sells in more than 70 countries. The rest, as they say, is history.

So if you are not going to go out alone, your challenge as an innovator is to understand why people resist great ideas and how can you overcome them, and even turn them into fans.

Here are the top three reasons people will resist your ideas. Resistance is driven by rational, emotional and personal drivers. Each is different. But decoding their unique characteristics and motivations will help you use a strategy to melt their resistance.

1. Rational forms of Resistance

People resisting for “rational” reasons are the easiest to spot, overcome and bring onboard as allies. Rational resisters, oppose your idea because it will cost too much, waste time or feel it would be distraction from current business. Their objections are rational, and in many cases reasonable.

“We do not have the budget for this,” they say. Or “it can never be done within these timeframes”.

In each case the point of resistance is “rational” perspective of limitations and constraints. Responding to “rational” resistance is about listening to key data points and objections. It may be that you have overlooked something. Being open to these “rational” perspectives, and weighing them objectively for their merits, can help refine your innovation and overcome constraints. Perhaps there are legitimate “holes” in your proposal.

Equally, by listing the points of resistance you can develop “rational” responses to each objection. Yours is a methodical approach, countering their own rational push back. Being comprehensive can overcome these detractors, even turn them into supporters, once they see you have thought through all of the angles.

2. Emotional Resistance

Emotions trigger some of the most profound forms of resistance. We might like to believe we are rational beings and that cold data grounds all our decisions. But the truth is more complex. Organizations are made up of people. Often we react to events, ideas and others according to our past experiences. Reactions that are gut responses.

Emotions spike even further when ideas are full of uncertainty. Disruption often unsettles us. The bolder the change, the more negative emotions can be. One of the most extreme emotional reactions is driven by fear. It can be a fear about losing your job, demotion or just uncertainty.

When faced with emotional fear driven resistance, the default is respond rationally. Perhaps people did not understand the change, we better explain it to them again, and again. Far from reducing anxiety such rational responses actually enflame it. If someone is scared they will lose their job, going deeper into the details of the plan, can sharpen their fears that you have an ulterior motive. You are hiding the real plan. Nothing can kill the momentum of a great idea than the slow rot of rumour feeding on existing fears.

When faced with emotional driven resistance, your role as a leader and innovator is to listen. You must spend the time and listen to why your idea is provoking such a negative emotion reaction. What is driving it? What are circumstances that are creating this reaction? Only by understanding the root causes driving these fears can you respond in a way that lowers the temperature of emotions and tackles the drivers of emotional resistance.

3. It’s Personal…

The last form of resistance is deeply personal. It can manifest as a direct attack on your credibility, competence and authority as a leader. Unlike the emotional response that focuses on the change itself, the personal response focuses on the leader.

“I have XX years of experience,” they say. In other words, “who are you to tell me what to do?” “I know better.” “I have more experience than you.” In professional settings, people are rarely that blunt. Often this personal form of resistance is coded.

In its worst form this type of personal resistance can be the most malicious. It can get deeply personal. The resister may try to sabotage your idea, dig in their heels and derail your idea’s momentum. Strangely though, such vivid reactions can be overcome. Personal attacks are emotional barbs. Often they are charged by a fear that your innovation is a direct threat to their sense of status and authority. But unlike “emotional” resisters, whose fears provoked by the change aspects of your idea, personal resisters are emotionally driven but more open and targeted at you.

Unfortunately, appeasement will rarely work with personal, direct resisters. Instead an early and direct approach to confront their resistance is advised. The key, though, is to transcend above the personal, recognize their status (it is the probably the source their resistance) and focus on their potential contribution to the innovation’s success.

Your conversation might look something like this:

“I sense you might not like me and you think I do not have your depth of experience, but I was looking to you to contribute to this idea’s success. This project will be a lot stronger with your expertise on board. Can I count on you?”

Final Thoughts

In the end, all innovators must understand how to overcome resistance. The life of your idea depends on it. The fact you are making waves is bound to rock someone’s boat. The key is to be tuned into the signals resisters give you so that you can adapt your message, approach and even idea to level the barriers in front of you. You will always face push back, in achieving great things. Learning how to read why people resist and responding to them will enable you to achieve your goals.

About the Author

Simon Trevarthen is Founder and Chief Inspiration Officer of Elevate Your Greatness (EYG). EYG helps individuals, teams and organizations unpack the secrets of success by becoming even better versions of themselves through dynamic keynotes, seminars and workshops on innovation, inspiration and presentation excellence.