Allister Frost’s ‘Six Change Postures’
Over years of delivering keynotes and workshops, I have observed that busy people naturally adopt one of six universal postures when confronting workplace change. Recognising your default posture is the first step to reclaiming your energy and momentum.
The
Streetwise Sceptic
“Here we go again! I’ve survived seven of these failed rollouts. I’ll just keep my shield raised, defend my patch, and wait this one out. This too shall pass.”
You have your guard up. Experience has taught you that when new changes roll in, sticking your neck out gets you bruised, so you retreat to familiar ground. You aren’t against progress, but you are understandably protective of your corner, your team, and the way you do things.
Recognising this posture isn’t self-criticism; it’s a healthy reality check. Scepticism is an instinctive reflex when you’ve been burned by poorly managed transformations in the past. But while raising your shield keeps you safe in the short term, digging into a trench to defend your patch can turn into a lonely hill to die on.
Around
of employees recognise themselves as Streetwise Sceptics
Why You Feel This Way
- Defending your corner: You’ve worked hard to make your patch functional, and you instinctively resist anything that threatens to disrupt your hard-won stability.
- Fatigue from past rollouts: You remember the promises made by previous initiatives that collapsed, leaving you to clean up the mess.
- Scepticism as self-defence: Keeping your guard up feels like the safest way to avoid investing emotional energy into something that might not last.
The Shift You Need:
Pick a Better Battle
Defending your patch keeps you safe from today’s disruption, but it can isolate you from tomorrow’s opportunities.
Try this instead: Your sharp eye for what works in practice is a huge asset. There’s little risk in questioning things, but it doesn’t make sense to pour all your energy into defending something that might not be worth saving. Don’t let your protective instinct turn into a stubborn refusal to evolve. Instead of using your sharp critical thinking to build walls, direct it toward finding bridges for improvements that you can shape on your own terms.
One Micro-Action to Try Today
Lower the shield by two inches
Identify one change, new tool, or process tweak you’ve been actively resisting or dismissing recently.
Ask yourself honestly: “Am I fighting this because it genuinely harms my work, or am I just defending my territory?” Pick one harmless part of that change to test without prejudice before 5pm today. Step out of the bunker and see what happens when you test a new reality instead of defending your patch.
The bottom line: Protecting your patch feels smart, but a bunker can become a dead end. Don’t let a defensive action stop you from creating what comes next.