The Five Faces of Change

(United States)

May 5, 2025

Agile environments thrive on adaptability, but true agility isn't just about process or product—it's about people. Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and Agile Leaders are uniquely positioned to influence team dynamics during periods of change.

Understanding how individuals respond—beyond simple 'support' or 'resist'—is essential for fostering high-performing teams. One of my previous posts, The Change Hypothesis, introduced the concept of change as an experiment. This post expands on that, providing practical strategies to navigate the diverse human responses to change, build resilience, and lead toward sucess.

We'll be exploring 5 primary types of responses...

The Spark: Excitement

Sometimes, people are excited by the change and enthusiastically adopt it. Those who respond this way will often be vocal about their support and also provide proactive suggestions and improvements.

The Upside: This response provides a spark of excitement at the beginning of a change that fuels rapid innovation - they’re getting the flywheel turning by being early adopters. This can accelerate the change and invite others to join in the change effort.

"Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Challenge: While you’d think this kind of response would be all sunshine and rainbows, there are some challenges, too. People who are excited by the change can overlook potential risks and rush to implement the change prematurely. Some can unintentionally exclude dissenting voices. Others may take the initiative to mold the change into something different that matches their desires.

Leading through It: The excited early adopters are already vocal advocates for the change, so it’s important that they’re aligned with your perspective. Work with them to clarify the vision, purpose, and boundaries of the change. Collaborate with them to create experiments so they have buy-in and clarity of action. Stay connected with them so they continue to be inspired, see the positive effects of the change, and continue to support it.

Small Step: Identify three people who you can see are excited by a change you’re introducing and ask them what they’re excited by.

The Shield: Passivity

Sometimes, people react to change by withdrawing, becoming passive, or exhibiting signs of fear. They may avoid taking initiative, hesitate to speak up with either support or concerns, and appear disengaged from the process.

As a change leader, it can be frustrating to see people not taking responsibility for their part in the change. If we can look at this response as the person putting their shield up to prevent overwhelm or fear, it can help us engage with them in more helpful ways.

The Upside: This response can provide a moment for cautious reflection, preventing hasty decisions and highlighting potential risks that more enthusiastic individuals might overlook. It can also signal areas where more support and clarity are needed. In many cases, once their reasons for passivity are addressed, they will merge into the change movement.

The Challenges: While it might seem like a simple lack of enthusiasm, this response carries significant challenges. People who retreat into passivity can become a silent barrier to progress, inadvertently blocking feedback and innovation. They may unintentionally spread a sense of helplessness, and others might take their silence as implicit dissent.

"Understanding the root of inaction is the key to unlocking potential." - Maria Sanchez

Leading through It: Those who retreat into passivity benefit from a supportive approach. Focus on building trust and creating a safe space for them to express their concerns by using the superpower of listening. Work with them to break down the change into small, manageable steps that can overcome fear and analysis paralysis, emphasizing the purpose. Sometimes, the most effective way to unlock action is by making specific requests. Stay connected with them, providing consistent reassurance and highlighting incremental progress, so they can gradually see the benefits and regain a sense of agency.

Small Step: Reach out to one person who isn’t taking action, seeking to understand their perspective on the change.

The Anchor: Resistance

Encountering visible resistance to our ideas can be very frustrating, as it seems to slow progress and create roadblocks to success. As a leader, a helpful perspective is curiosity about why the person is actively resisting.

There are many possible motivations, but the two we’ve seen most often are:

Fear of loss. Changes can threaten things that people want to protect.
Mourning. Changes can force people to face that their hopes may not be realized.

Fear or mourning can be about several things, including job security, autonomy, familiarity, or competence. While the shield response (passivity) adds weight to the “stay the same” side of things, the anchor response (resistance) is more active, like applying the brakes to the change.

"Resistance is a signal, not a roadblock. It tells us where the real fears lie." - Dr. Evelyn Holt

The Upside: The resistors will highlight friction points and pitfalls in bringing your change to life. The things they fear or are mourning are signals that you can use to gain a better understanding of the implications of the change.

The Challenge: If resistors don’t feel heard, they can shift to even more challenging approaches, like undermining or passive-aggressive behavior. This can quickly spread to others, putting the brakes on the change effort and increasing tension and conflict within the team.

Leading through It: Assume resistors have some important concerns; using empathetic listening skills, help them articulate their concerns in helpful ways, recognizing the emotional aspects of change and the likelihood of neurobiological flooding.

Involve them in the change, partnering to create and run experiments so they have buy-in and clarity of action. Stay connected with them so they continue to be heard and you get their insights to lead more effectively.

If, after working to understand and address their concerns, they are still actively resisting the change, it may be most appropriate to find a place where their skills are needed that isn’t affected by this change.

Small Step: Offer a "What If" session with a resistor, creating a safe space to explore potential negative outcomes of the change.

The Microscope: Examination

Sometimes, people respond to change with a relentless stream of questions, dissecting every detail under the microscope of their analysis. They proactively identify potential issues and alternative solutions, driven by a deep desire for optimization and refinement. This constant pursuit of perfection can manifest in a barrage of "what if" scenarios and suggestions for improvement, often coming across as critical or overly analytical.

The Upside: This response drives thorough analysis and robust problem-solving, uncovering potential risks and opportunities that others might miss. They are the early detectors of friction points, the architects of contingency plans, and the champions of continuous improvement. By catching issues early, they can prevent costly mistakes and elevate the overall quality of the change implementation.

The Challenges: While their insights are invaluable, an unchecked examination can slow down decision-making and implementation, leading to analysis paralysis. The sheer volume of details can overwhelm the team, distracting them from the overall goal and creating a sense that their work is never good enough. Their questioning, if perceived as criticism, can lead to conflict and tension, hindering collaboration and slowing progress.

Leading through It: Acknowledge and value their sharp insights, while also establishing clear boundaries for questioning and analysis. Two helpful types of boundaries are prioritization and action.

Prioritizing the questions and issues helps bring focus on the most critical areas, relieving them of a full-scale, in-depth analysis of everything.

The boundary of action makes it clear that some progress (even if it’s small) needs to be taken in a specific time period. Using the Hypothesis Template, channel their energy into structured problem-solving sessions and experiments, providing them with a framework that uses action to learn more than analysis alone.

"Analysis paralysis is real; that's why we need boundaries." - Raj Patel

My facilitation post also lays out the critical need for diverging and the shift to converging in order to make effective decisions.

Small Step: In the next discussion with a Microscope, use the facilitation steps of Context, Diverging, Converging, and Action.

The Low Battery: Exhaustion

Sometimes, people respond to change with a gradual decline, their energy reserves depleted, their batteries running low. This manifests as decreased productivity, an uptick in errors, a creeping cynicism, and unmistakable signs of disengagement. The spark that once fueled their contributions dims, leaving behind a sense of weariness and detachment.

The Upside: This response, while concerning, serves as a crucial signal, highlighting the urgent need for sustainable practices and emphasizing the often-overlooked importance of well-being. It shines a light on the human cost of relentless change, forcing a re-evaluation of workloads and expectations. It reminds us that people are not machines, and that long-term success requires a foundation of rest and recovery.

"The human cost of change is real. Ignore it, and you'll pay a higher price." - Isabella Rossi

The Challenges: If left unaddressed, this exhaustion leads to a cascading effect of decreased morale, a rise in turnover, and a significant decline in overall team performance that erodes their collective resilience. The very fabric of the team begins to fray, threatening the success of the change initiative and the organization as a whole.

Leading through It: As a leader, one of your primary jobs is to offer focus, inviting people to set their attention on the most important outcomes. Anything more than temporary exhaustion can indicate your people are overwhelmed or have change fatigue, and you may need to narrow the focus for them to be able to recharge and make progress on the most important changes.

It is also important to celebrate and acknowledge progress so that their activities are connected to a larger purpose and they can visualize the success. Ultimately, leading through exhaustion requires a shift from pushing harder to working smarter, prioritizing sustainability over short-term gains, and remembering that the human element is the organization's most valuable asset.

Small Step: Dedicate a few minutes in your next meeting or one-on-one for an "energy audit," asking others to rate their current energy level (1-5) and share why they picked that number.

By recognizing and responding to these five distinct human reactions—the Spark, the Shield, the Anchor, the Microscope, and the Low Battery—you can move beyond simply managing change to truly leading people through it.

Remember, agility isn't just about adapting processes and products; it's also about understanding and nurturing the people involved. Employ these insights, leverage the small steps provided, and consistently apply tools like the Hypothesis Template and effective facilitation techniques. By doing so, you'll not only navigate change more effectively but cultivate a resilient, high-performing team that embraces change as a catalyst for continuous growth and success.