The Resistance to Change - a primer

I want to take you back to my very first client engagement after I moved to Hong Kong in 2012. It was a culture shock in the best and most challenging ways, and this client where I was deployed as a single software developer consultant taught me more about resistance than any textbook ever could…

The start…

When I first walked into the small yet well-lit office of this Russo-phone origin marketing tech startup in Hong Kong in 2012, I quickly noticed by the heavy atmosphere this wasn't a typical startup with ping-pong tables, casual banter and happy hour Fridays. This was a company that had a distinctly hierarchical, command-and-control culture, borderline dictatorship right in the middle of Hong Kong tech scene.

The company was ambitious, well-funded, and had serious aspirations to disrupt the Russo-phone online advertisement market. But their approach to software development was, let's say, lacking. Think waterfall, detailed upfront specifications, and a clear chain of command where decisions flowed strictly from top to bottom, weekly meetings where leadership would scrutinize individuals’ contributions in terms of lines of code added. My mission was to introduce better quality practices and testing methodologies, which, in 2012, inevitably meant bringing some sort of Agile mindset into their world.