The Phenomenon of Change Resistance

The transformation of society to environmental sustainability requires three steps: The first is the profound realization we must make the change, because if we don’t our descendants are doomed. The second is finding the proper practices that will allow living sustainably. The third step is adopting those practices.

Due to the phenomenon of change resistance, society has faltered on the third step. By now the world is aware it must live sustainably, which is the first step. There are countless practical, proven ways to do this, which is the technical side of the problem and the second step. But for strange and mysterious reasons society doesn't want to take the final step and adopt these practices, which is the change resistance or social side of the problem. Therefore the social side of the problem is the crux.

Here is what the third edition of Limits to Growth (Meadows et al., 2004) had to say about the social side of the problem:

“Beyond the Limits was published in 1992, the year of the global summit on environment and development in Rio de Janeiro. The advent of the summit seemed to prove that global society had decided to deal seriously with the important environmental problems. But we now know that humanity failed to achieve the goals of Rio. The Rio plus 10 conference in Johannesburg in 2002 produced even less; it was almost paralyzed by a variety of ideological and economic disputes, by the efforts of those pursuing their narrow national, corporate, or individual self-interests.

“…humanity has largely squandered the past 30 years…”

What is the underlying cause of such stiff, prolonged global change resistance? Whatever it is, it must be incredibly strong to cause such a powerful effect.

The above is the opening to the paper on The Dueling Loops of the Political Powerplace. This paper is the best possible introduction to the work on change resistance at Thwink.org. Read it and see if you agree with its key findings:

1. The social side is the crux of the problem.

2. There is a simple social structure that explains why change resistance to solving the sustainability problem has been so strong. This structure is The Dueling Loops of the Political Powerplace.

3. The main reason problem solvers (environmentalists) have been failing to solve the problem is that without realizing it, they have been pushing on the low leverage point of "more of the truth."

4. If problem solvers would instead push on the high leverage point of "general ability to detect political deception," the system would respond in a completely different manner from the way it is now, and the problem would be solved relatively quickly.

The Dueling Loops paper is here.

For an in depth article on change resistance, one that goes well beyond the concepts presented in the Dueling Loops paper, please see this page.

For more on change resistance see the glossary.