Interview with Herb Stevenson talking about resistance to change

I’ve gained a lot from my relationship with this man since first meeting him in Austin at the Organization Development Network conference in 2008. This is one of the first interviews of a series done at his Pebble Ledge Ranch in Ohio that he shares with his wife, Jackie Stevenson. We were sitting between rows and rows of books in his library and a window looking out over a pasture with grazing horses.

In this interview, I ask Herb how he thinks about resistance to change. He offers a historical view of how the concept of resistance has moved from understanding resistance as a defense mechanism to understanding resistance as contact styles. Herb believes that using the term and the frame of contact styles is more productive and expansive. For instance, it is not necessarily that I have “resistance” to an idea or a person, but rather this is my way of making contact with that idea or person.