Dealing with CAVE People
What is a CAVE person?
The acronym stands for Citizens Against Virtually Everything. It’s a term I first heard in the 1990s while consulting with a group of supervisors at a manufacturing plant. Metaphorically, it refers to people who resist any kind of change. These people bypass the ‘wait and see how it goes’ step and position themselves right away as anti-change advocates. As employees, they can have a toxic effect, poisoning the attitudes of co-workers and building a wall of resistance. For a change program to succeed, leaders have to address them and neutralize their negativity.
What lies at the root of all the negativity towards change?
For lots of people, change is something to be feared. The good news is, I have found that if it is well managed, most people will get on board. Well-managed change entails and . Second, in terms of competencies, what will they and their colleagues be expected to do differently? People also need to know what resources they will have access to in order to help them get though the clunky early days. And finally, how will formal and informal ‘consequence systems’ line up to keep them engaged and motivated?
