Recognizing Resistance

“We’re not ready to start on that yet…” “I don’t think I’m the right person for this task…” “We need to do more research before moving forward…”

Are you hearing the cries of Resistance from your team?

I don’t mean defiance. I mean big-R Resistance of the Stephen Pressfield variety: the working-through-molasses sensation, when everything feels hard to start and impossible to finish on time. This in spite of knowing that your team has the skillset to perform and the history of pulling it off.

What should you be looking for?

• Higher distractability. A bug bash is great, but if your whole team’s focus is shifting towards smaller keep-the-lights-on tasks rather than meatier deliverables, they may be facing Resistance.

• Perfectionism blocking delivery. Code that gets stuck in review is never fun; code that gets stuck in review for weeks is a sign that something’s off. If your team is getting bogged down in the details, they may be facing Resistance.

• Aversion to starting new tasks. If your team is finding reasons to delay starting on new projects, they may be facing Resistance.

• Challenges in finishing tasks. If your team is finding reasons to delay finishing projects, they may be facing Resistance.

• Aversion to feedback. (Much more on this in another post soon after this Resistance focus.) If your team is finding reasons to avoid feedback, they may be facing Resistance.

• Indecisiveness and seeming fear or avoidance of commitment. If your team is finding reasons to avoid making decisions, they may be facing Resistance.

• A general sense of malaise, low engagement: silence in meetings that had once had participation, lack of organic collaboration. If your team is finding reasons to avoid engaging with each other, they may be facing Resistance.

It’s worth being able to recognize and identify Resistance. Everyone experiences it, individuals and teams alike. And, crucially, it’s not a sign of weakness or incompetence. It’s a sign that something is off in the system.

When you recognize Resistance, you’ll want to make some changes. But let’s start with what won’t help: laying out blame and guilt across your team. They’re going to need some leadership, grit, and momentum-building, and the worst way to start this is by being further discouraging.