Support First. Challenge Second.

There's a sequence that most companies get exactly backwards. It costs them everything.

They start with the challenge.

• Here's the new strategy. • Here are the KPIs. • Here's the training. • Here are the metrics.

Now, why aren't you doing it?

Then, after people are already defensive and disengaged, they offer support.

"Here are some resources. Here's a toolkit. Let us know if you need help."

That's backwards, and it produces exactly what you'd expect: people comply where they're being watched and ignore everything else.

The right sequence sounds almost too simple: support first. Challenge second.

At a large specialty chemicals company we work with, the first thing our client did when he brought people together in his ‘next gen’ Commercial Excellence Academy wasn't to present a strategy or roll out new KPIs.

Instead, a board member and regional leader stood up and said: "No one's recording anything. No bosses are here. There are no wrong answers. We want to hear the truth, and what's actually blocking you."

People had no trouble sharing. Years of frustration came pouring out. Problems with other departments, systemic issues, broken processes, all of it. Because for the first time, someone was asking what was hard instead of telling them what to do.

Only after that, after people felt heard, after the coaching teams had invested weeks in helping them work through real problems, did mindset and behavior actually change.

There was nothing to resist. The trust was already there.

Most companies reverse this and then wonder why their people are "change resistant."