You can’t solve resistance if you don’t know which resistance you’re facing.

It is tough to fight resistance when you do not know what it is and where it is coming from.

Or, said in a different way: You can’t solve resistance if you don’t know which resistance you’re facing.

Let’s be real, most of us experienced pushback, opposition, and friction throughout our careers, some more, some less, but everyone attempting to do something different got a taste of it.

The less experienced version of me tried to lump all resistance together as “pushback” or “negativity” and tried to re-explain the “why”, offer more support and information, or ramp up the urgency. In some cases, that worked; in others, it did not.

I misdiagnosed the resistance.

I misdiagnosed it because I did not recognize the signs. And that misdiagnosis resulted in ineffective interventions and slower change. I was solving the wrong problems and wasting efforts and time.

Even when I was listening to the concerns and complaints, I could not translate them into patterns and actions I needed to take. It took a lot of trial and error to come up with a workable framework that saves time and, frankly, the mental efforts necessary to deal with resistance.

Myron Golden said, “Things that do not work for you, work on you.”  And oh boy, did they work on me! After a few contentious interactions, you cannot help but start questioning yourself (do they resist me- or the change?).

I spent countless hours figuring out how to recognize resistance before it becomes a problem and causes project issues. I stopped thinking, ” they are just not on board with this project.” and started listening more deeply to what I was hearing.

After doing it many times, I started seeing the patterns of resistance- and here are the most common ones:

The most powerful discovery was that I could now decode the resistance types and apply those to different stakeholder groups, saving myself lots of time.

Interestingly, I spent less time in front of the stakeholders, but my actions became more targeted and more effective. I spent less than 5 percent of my (and their) time understanding why they hesitate to get on board, and 95 percent of my time on taking action to reduce them.

I created a tool for myself- the Resistance Decoder Scorecard to help me decode what I am hearing from my stakeholders and then apply required actions quickly. In a way, it is like a pointed checklist to help me figure out what resistance I am facing- and more importantly- remind me of things I can do to address it.

Something that can help me do the same analysis over and over again with no additional effort.

This is how my world looked before I made it easier for myself to figure it out:

• Resistance felt like a vague cloud of negativity — no clear sense of what’s really going on.
• I was guessing at solutions (following typical generic change management plans), often fixing the wrong thing and burning time and credibility.
• Resistance would be spotted late, when it’s already affected timelines and morale.
• Conversations with the team generated noise but not clarity – I would hear complaints but couldn’t turn them into insight.
• Dealing with resistance was isolating, and it took time to navigate pushback. The emotional toll was high.

After I created the Resistance Decoder scorecard, this became a reality:

• Resistance was clearly named and categorized, so I would know exactly which problem I’m dealing with.
• I applied targeted actions proven to work for that specific type of resistance.
• I can catch early subtle warning signs, before they snowball into bigger issues.
• I can decode what’s being said into actionable signals I can address immediately.
• I have a ready-made playbook for overcoming resistance without guesswork.

In a nutshell, this scorecard is a practical and efficient way to get clarity fast, backed by real-world language cues and targeted actions I can take immediately.

I could:

• Pinpoint the root cause of resistance in minutes.
• Get tailored actions that actually shift momentum.
• Catch warning signs early before they derail my project.

Now, I am offering you to take this simplified free Resistance Decoder Scorecard today and find out precisely what’s holding you and your team back — so you can get them moving forward again and accelerate your change journey.