"Change Management – Practical Cases and Lessons Learned at pH7x Systems II"

Resistance to Change – How We Overcame It at pH7x Systems

Resistance to change is natural. At pH7x Systems®, we encounter it regularly — in software rollouts, cloud migrations, and even internal restructuring. But over the years, we’ve learned that resistance can become a driver of success when managed transparently and empathetically.

In this post, we share practical insights from real use cases.

Understanding the Roots of Resistance

In one of our cloud migration projects for a multinational client, initial resistance came from IT managers who feared losing autonomy. We realized early that the issue wasn’t technical — it was emotional and organisational.

What we did:

We organized roundtable sessions where teams could voice concerns.
We clarified what would stay the same and what would change.
We provided comparative workflows and involved them in pilot phases.

Communicating Clearly (and Often)

In another case, we faced internal resistance to a DevOps automation pipeline. Weekly updates weren’t enough. Developers didn’t know where they stood.

Solution:

We moved to daily micro-briefs (Slack + 5-min morning calls).
Used before/after dashboards to show impact in real time.
Created a central “change log” accessible to all.

This built confidence and visibility, reducing perceived chaos.

Including Key Stakeholders from Day One

One of our most effective techniques: involve clients or teams before decisions are final.

Example: On a project for a public sector intranet, we co-designed the structure with department heads in live workshops. Instead of imposing structure, we built it together. Resistance dropped. Adoption soared.

Empowering Change Agents

In an M365 rollout, we identified internal “champions” — people with influence, not just formal authority. They received early training, and in turn helped onboard others. This “peer learning” model reduced pressure on IT and increased speed of adoption.

flowchart TD
    A[Project Start]
    B[Identify Resistance]
    C{Type of Resistance}
    D[Active listening and empathy]
    E[Workshops and co-design]
    F[Pilot testing and training]
    G[Frequent and transparent communication]
    H[Engage stakeholders from the beginning]
    I[Identify change agents]
    J[Empower internal champions]
    K[Continuous feedback loop]
    L[Iteration and improvement]
    M[Success: Sustainable Adoption]

    A --> B --> C
    C -->|Emotional| D --> G
    C -->|Operational| E --> G
    C -->|Technical| F --> G
    G --> H --> I --> J --> K --> L --> M

    style A fill:#e8f0fe,stroke:#3367d6,stroke-width:2px,color:#000
    style C fill:#fff3cd,stroke:#ffc107,stroke-width:2px,color:#000
    style M fill:#d4edda,stroke:#28a745,stroke-width:2px,color:#000

Continuous Learning and Feedback

All our projects include a post-change feedback cycle. We always ask:

What could we have done better?
What worked unexpectedly well?
What’s still unclear?

These loops feed our knowledge base and improve future deployments.

Lessons Learned

Resistance is feedback. Don’t fight it — understand it.
Empathy > enforcement. Change is personal.
Transparency builds trust. Keep people informed even when there’s no news.

At pH7x Systems, change management is not a checkbox — it’s embedded in how we work, iterate and evolve.

pH7x Systems ®