Frameworks and models of system change can be a bit seductive. If we’re not careful, they can lure us into the illusion that change happens in a predictable, even formulaic way.
But any system is more than the sum of its diagrammatic parts. Systems are made up of people, and that means they’re messy and change-resistant.
Each decision-maker and implementer you see as a node in your system framework is an individual facing a daily onslaught of psychological pressures. Each of them is trying to stay sane in the face of various stressors, from budgetary restraints to office politics to family crises.
Most of your audience relies on a common strategy to fight the sense of impending chaos that comes with being a human in 2026: Stave Off Change.
Even those you’d consider your supporters or allies fall into this tendency—because it’s human nature to view the status quo as safe and change as risky. In most situations, we perceive change as difficult and dangerous. While it may offer an opportunity for gain, our fearful brain warns us that it will certainly involve some kind of loss.
Change is Scary
I’ve learned a lot about audience resistance to change from Dr. Ross Ellenhorn’s book How We Change (And Ten Reasons Why We Don’t). While Ellenhorn focuses on personal change, his insights also help us understand the challenges of system change, which depends on multiple people exerting a heroic effort to disrupt their beliefs and behavior.
As someone who’s trying to mobilize research, the change you’re working to bring about seems logical and straightforward to you. But it probably doesn’t look that way to the people you’re asking to break with “the way it’s always been done.”
Change, Ellenhorn emphasizes, is frightening, and pursuing it requires courage and determination.
Does it sound like I’m exaggerating?
Stop for a moment to think about a change you’ve been trying to make in your personal life but haven’t yet been able to achieve. Maybe it’s losing 10 pounds, saving up for a dream vacation, or emptying your inbox each day. As you consider all the times you’ve tried to reach your goal and found yourself stymied, do these words from Ellenhorn resonate with you?
As you walk toward change, you also walk toward feelings and experiences most of us try to avoid—profound adult things like the anxiety stirred by realizing you are the master of your own fate—and away from feelings and experiences that we typically find attractive, like comfort, a sense of certainty, the shirking of responsibility, the blaming of others, and the painlessness of a numbing routine.
The first time I read that passage, I thought “Touché!” I also felt a wave of self-compassion. Acknowledging how hard it is to make change can give us the grace to start taking the first brave baby steps toward it.
How to Help Your Audience Embrace Change
For you, research-driven change is positive and exciting. For your audience, it may hold a certain appeal, but that carrot is likely outweighed by a heavy stick of fear.
Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. To act on your research, what’s at risk for them?
For example, to make the change you’re recommending, they may need to:
- Stick their neck out and make themselves accountable
- Abandon familiar ways of seeing and addressing a situation
- Change the way they perceive their personal and professional identity
- Overcome feelings of learned helplessness
- Give up a hidden benefit of the status quo
So here’s the critical question: How can you make it safer and easier for your audience to embrace change?
When your audience is resisting change, they need you to make it less scary. Start with these three simple steps:
- Lead with compassion. Identify everything your audience has to lose by adopting the change you want them to make. Keep these potential losses front of mind as you engage with them, whether that’s through written or in-person communication.
- Address risks. Acknowledge what could go wrong—and offer realistic ways to mitigate those risks.
- Build self-efficacy. It’s never wise to oversell a research-based solution as “simple” or “easy.” At the same time, you don’t have to make it sound harder or more complex than it is. Intentionally use language—including metaphors—that make change sound doable. Help your audience to envision themselves successfully advocating for and implementing the change you’re recommending.
If you want your audience to drive change, then give them more than evidence and toolkits. The people you’re trying to motivate need you to empower them so they can overcome the natural fear of change.
Think not only about how you can convince them but also about how you can inspire them. Give your audience the courage they’ll need to leave the comfort of the status quo and become the bold champion who helps move your ideas forward.
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