For a long time I thought people who resisted change were the problem.
Those who raised their hands at every meeting.
Those who said:
"We tried that."
"That doesn't work here."
"That was already proven and failed."
When you get to a company with new energy, new ideas, wanting to move everything fast... that resistance feels like a brake.
It's annoying, uncomfortable, unspent.
Until one day I understood something.
Many times the resistant are not defending the past, they are defending the memory of the company.
They are those who remember what was tried, what failed, what hurt and what things were really valuable.
That day I learned something that I consider key today: when you enter a company or start a new project, ideas are almost never the problem.
The key is almost always on how things were done.
Because many times the idea was right... but how it was that killed her.
Listening to that resistance gives you context.
It shows you scars, it saves you mistakes.
But I also understood something else.
This resistance has an expiry date.
It's valuable at first, when you need to understand the story.
But it can't become a permanent place.
Because there comes a time when history has already been heard, the lessons have already been understood and the project has to move forward.
And if someone decides to stay and live in the past, they'll probably have to go.
That day I learned something that I repeat a lot today: the resistant are not always enemies of change.
They are often the guardians of the company's memory.
And listening to them in time can save you years of mistakes.
