Comprehensive and Detailed In-Depth Explanation:
The APMG Change Management Foundation integrates neuroscience to explain resistance, including factors like those listed. A fixed mindset (per Carol Dweck) resists growth or change, believing abilities are static. Let’s analyze each option in this context:
•Option A: "Routine seeking" – This reflects a preference for familiarity, a common resistance trigger (e.g., preferring old processes). While linked to comfort, it’s not inherently a fixed mindset but a behavioral tendency, so it’s not the best fit.
•Option B: "Emotional reaction to forced change" – This is a threat response (e.g., fear from SCARF’s Certainty domain), driving resistance emotionally. It’s situational, not a mindset, making it incorrect.
•Option C: "Cognitive rigidity" – This is the correct answer. Cognitive rigidity is the inability or unwillingness to adapt thinking, a hallmark of a fixed mindset. For example, someone insisting “This is how we’ve always done it” resists new learning, aligning with neuroscience on inflexible neural patterns and the APMG’s focus on mindset barriers.
•Option D: "Short-term focus" – This prioritizes immediate results over long-term gains, a resistance factor, but it’s a strategic choice, not a fixed mindset.
Option C best exemplifies a fixed mindset, as it directly ties to the neuroscience of entrenched thinking patterns that hinder change acceptance, a key resistance driver in the framework.
[Reference: APMG Change Management Foundation, Chapter 3 – Individual Change, Neuroscience and Resistance section., ]