[Event Recap] From Resistance to Momentum Change Management Practical Session Recap
Change is easy to talk about until people have to live with it on Monday morning.
That simple truth sat at the heart of the Change Management Practical Session on 23 September 2026, organised by our trusted strategic partner, the Six Sigma Institute. We were really glad to be part of the evening, not just because the room was full, but because the conversation felt honest from the start.
Our Prosci Advanced Instructor, Ms. Catherine Tam, and our MCC Chairlady, Ms. Grace Cheng, joined the panel led by the General Manager of Six Sigma Institute and also our MCC Honorary Advisor, Dr. Sabestine Chan to explore what actually happens when change meets real people, real habits, and real organizational culture. The result was a warm, open, and very useful exchange with our three guest speakers, plus professional participants joining both in person and online.
The conversation quickly got real
The best part of the session was how direct people were.
Nobody tried to dress up change as something neat and tidy. Instead, the panel got into the real-world challenges of driving change, the kind that don’t always appear on a project plan but can decide whether an initiative survives.
People spoke about familiar blockers:
Teams that understand the change but still don’t feel ready for it
Leaders who support the idea but struggle to stay visible
Staff who are tired from too many past initiatives
Departments that define success in different ways
Cultures where people stay quiet until resistance appears later
That last point came up more than once. Resistance isn’t always loud. Sometimes it looks like silence, slow replies, workarounds, or polite agreement with no follow-through.
And that’s why conversations like this matter. They give people a safer way to name what’s really going on.
Resistance is information, not just a problem
One of the strongest themes of the evening was the idea that resistance can tell us something useful.
When people push back, there’s usually a reason. They may not understand the purpose. They may worry about losing skills, status, time, or confidence. They may have seen similar efforts fail before. They may even agree with the change but feel unsure about how to make it work.
That shift in mindset is powerful.
Instead of asking, “Why won’t they get on board?”, a better question is, “What are they telling us through their reaction?”
From there, change leaders can respond with more care and more accuracy. That might mean clearer communication, better timing, stronger sponsorship, or more support for the people expected to adopt new ways of working.
Why people and culture took centre stage
The session kept coming back to two words: people and culture.
That sounds simple, but it’s where many change efforts get stuck. A plan can be well written. A process can make sense. A tool can be ready to use. Still, if the people affected by the change don’t feel included, the work gets harder.
Culture shapes how people respond. In some teams, people ask questions early. In others, they wait until a decision is already made. Some organisations reward speed. Others reward certainty. Some teams are used to top-down direction, while others expect discussion before action.
None of these patterns are automatically good or bad. But they do affect change.
During the session, participants shared how these cultural habits show up in daily work. The chat was open, practical, and refreshingly honest. It reminded us that change management isn’t a side task. It’s part of how work actually gets done.
PM in Change reached an important milestone
This event also marked a special moment for us.
Over the past year, we’ve been walking hand in hand with the Six Sigma Institute to grow the idea of PM in Change, the connection between Project Management and Change Management.
That connection matters because projects don’t succeed through delivery milestones alone. A project can finish “on time” and still fail if people don’t use what was delivered. By the same token, a change effort needs structure, ownership, and clear measures if it’s going to last.
Bringing both sides together helps teams ask better questions:
What are we delivering?
Who needs to adopt it?
What will be different in daily work?
Who is affected most?
What support do they need before, during, and after launch?
How will we know the change has taken hold?
Seeing this idea resonate with the community gave us a real sense of pride. Not loud, self-congratulatory pride, but the quiet kind that comes from seeing a useful idea land with people who can put it into practice.
A few moments we’ll remember
Some events stand out because of the content. This one stood out because of the feeling in the room.
There was curiosity. There was honesty. There was also a clear willingness to admit that change can be messy. That mix made the evening feel productive without feeling forced.
A few moments stayed with us:
The way participants connected project outcomes with human adoption
The openness around cultural friction and change fatigue
The shared recognition that sponsorship needs to be visible, not just stated
The energy between the on-site audience and online participants
The warm partnership with SSI, built over time through shared work
We’re especially grateful to SSI for the invitation and for the continued trust. Partnerships like this work best when both sides care about the same thing. In this case, that means helping organisations in Hong Kong and beyond turn difficult change into something people can understand, support, and sustain.
What we’re taking forward
The big takeaway from the evening is simple: resistance doesn’t have to stop progress.
Handled well, it can become a source of learning. It can show where communication is unclear, where support is missing, or where culture needs more attention. It can help leaders slow down in the right places so the work can move forward with more commitment.
That’s the heart of turning resistance into momentum.
And after this session, we’re even more convinced that the future of change work sits in the space where project discipline and people-centred change meet.
A heartfelt thank you to the Six Sigma Institute, Dr. Sabestine Chan, Mrs Catherine Tam Thillanathan, Ms Grace Cheng, and everyone who joined the session. The conversations were open, generous, and exactly the kind of exchange that helps change feel less like a push and more like a shared step forward.
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