Subjectivity as a driver of change

A lot of time is spent in organizations trying to neutralize subjectivity. We are looking for objective analysis grids, repeatable frameworks, standardized indicators. As if change could be controlled from outside, away from what people are really experiencing.

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How did we end up ignoring subjectivity

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There is a historical reason for all of this. For decades, management sciences have sought to legitimize themselves by imitating the hard sciences. We wanted rigor, measurement, predictability. We ended up building a vocabulary that talks about “human resources”, “human capital”, “talent management” — as if people were assets that we optimize.

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The problem is that this approach treats individuals as variables. Elements of a system that can be adjusted, calibrated, controlled. It works well for some things. But it always fails as soon as we touch on profound change.

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Why? Because change is never just technical or organizational. It is as existential as ever. When you're asked to transform the way you work, it's not just a matter of process. It is a question of meaning. Consistency with who you are. A story that you tell yourself about yourself.

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And that, no framework can manage it for you.

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Except that you can still work with this subjectivity. Not by denying it. By objectifying it. By making explicit what is usually implied. It is precisely because the factor of production is a real man — not a machine, not an algorithm — that this objectification becomes necessary.

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What the research on narrative identity really says

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Paul Ricœur spent part of his life exploring this idea: we are not defined by a fixed essence, but by how we tell our story. This “narrative identity” is not a psychological detail. It is what holds together our experiences, our choices, our contradictions.

Dan P. McAdams extended this work into psychology. It shows that we are all building some kind of life story — not necessarily conscious, not always coherent, but one that structures the way we understand who we are and where we are going. This story is evolving. We're constantly rewriting it, based on what's happening to us and how we're interpreting it.

What is striking is that this storytelling ability is not a luxury. It is a necessity. To tell yourself is to build meaning. And building meaning is already starting to change. Because once you've formulated your story differently, you don't experience it the same way.

But there is another aspect, perhaps more political. Yves Clot and Christophe Dejours talk about “subjectivity at work” — not as a hidden interiority, but as the living part of yourself that connects what you do with what you live. Clot calls it the “power to act.” It's the gap between what you're asked to do and what you could do if you were given some leeway. Between prescription and the reality of work.

When that connection breaks, you lose grip. We execute, but we don't really act anymore. We are there physically, but absent from what we are doing. And that is precisely what happens in a lot of organizations: people continue to function, but they no longer recognize themselves in what they do.

The problem with organizations that fail to transform is not the lack of method. It is because they ignore this dimension. They treat people as variables to be adjusted, not as subjects that can be told and reinvented.

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Why do we have to objectify the subjective

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Here is the paradox: subjectivity is central, but it cannot remain invisible. If it remains implicit, it governs without being able to be worked on. It becomes a blind spot that limits action without us knowing why.

Objectifying the subjective is not denying it. It's making it visible. Explain what structures the way in which a person interprets the world, reacts to uncertainty, and makes decisions. Not to lock it into a category. To give it access to its own internal logic.

Because it is only when this logic becomes visible that it can be worked on, questioned, transformed. As long as it remains implicit, you suffer from it. As soon as it becomes explicit, you can choose what to do with it.

This is all the more crucial in a world where work is increasingly based on cognitive and relational skills. Where value no longer comes from mechanical execution, but from the ability to interpret, to decide, to adapt. In this context, ignoring subjectivity is the same as ignoring the very core of performance.

Organizations can no longer be managed as if they were machines. We manage men and women of flesh and blood, with their stories, their contradictions, their unique ways of being in the world. And if you really want to support them through change, you have to start by understanding how they work from within.

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Resistance to change doesn't really exist

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We often talk about “resistance to change” as if it were a pathology. As if some people were intrinsically resistant to novelty. But if you dig a little deeper, resistance is almost never just bad will.

What happens is that people don't see how what's being asked fits into their own story. They do not find coherence between what is imposed on them and who they are. Or more exactly: who they think they are. Because identity is never just who you objectively are. It's also what we tell ourselves about ourselves.

You have already been through this. You are being asked to change something — a method, an organization, a way of working. And something inside you is resisting. Not on principle. But because you don't see how to incorporate this change without losing something essential. Without betraying you, in a way.

It's not irrational. It is deeply human.

And that's why purely technical approaches to change fail so often. They do not take this narrative dimension into account. They don't empower people to rewrite their history by integrating change into it. They just impose it, hoping that people will adapt.

Sometimes it works. Often no.

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Your subjectivity works the same way

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If you are a decision-maker, you know this tension. You know that you have to evolve. You can see that some ways of doing things no longer work. But there is always a part of you that resists. Not out of conservatism. For the need for consistency.

Your subjectivity works like everyone else's. Until you put into words your way of being in the world — your values, your recurring patterns, what structures you — you pilot blindly. You are reacting more than you are acting. You are caught up in automations that you can't even see anymore.

This is where everything changes: when you make your subjectivity explicit, you find freedom. You are no longer subject to your habits. You understand them. And from there, you can choose to keep them or to transform them.

I'm not saying it's easy. Putting your own subjectivity into words is difficult. Because we're in. We don't always see the patterns that structure the way we think and act. We need a device that allows this objectification. Not to judge yourself. To see each other.

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What we do

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At UNREST Partners, we don't categorize. We don't put you in a box. They don't tell you, “You're an X profile, so you should do Y.” This type of approach has its limits. It simplifies, it standardizes, it misses the singularity.

What we are doing is objectifying your subjectivity. Map your story as it came out during your interview. Make explicit what was implied. Not to freeze you up. To give you access to something that you already know, but that you had never seen formulated that way.

Your unique way of interpreting the world. How you respond to uncertainty. Recurring patterns that structure your decisions. The values that guide your choices, even when you are not aware of them.

This revealed subjectivity is not a bias that needs to be corrected. It is a resource to be exploited. Because it is by assuming your own history that you can evolve in coherence with yourself.

We follow in the footsteps of Ricœur and McAdams on narrative identity, but also of Clot and Dejours on subjectivity at work. It is believed that these two dimensions are inseparable. You can't transform how you act without understanding the story behind that action. And you can't rewrite your story without it actually changing your power to act.

It is a permanent back and forth between meaning and action. Between who you think you are and what you actually do. Between your story and your ability to transform it.

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Why is it central in an uncertain world

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Organizations that are successful in transformation are not necessarily the ones that have the best tools. They are the ones that give people the means to tell themselves differently. To see their own story from a different perspective. To regain the power to act.

In a world marked by uncertainty, this storytelling ability becomes even more crucial. Because uncertainty isn't just a lack of information. It is the impossibility of predicting. It's the fact that the old stories don't quite work anymore. That the scripts we had in mind no longer correspond to reality.

And in this context, subjectivity is not a luxury. It is not a soft variable in a tough world. It is the very condition for change.

Because you never transform someone from the outside. The conditions are created for him to transform himself. And these conditions always require the objectification of the subjective. Through the possibility of seeing your own way of working. To understand the automations that govern us. To take back control of what structures us.

This is exactly what we call active resilience: not adapting at all costs, but staying in motion without getting lost. Change without denying yourself. Evolve while remaining consistent with yourself.

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What does that actually change

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Recognizing the centrality of subjectivity and giving yourself the means to objectify it does not mean giving up on action. On the contrary, it is making it possible. Because once you have access to your own way of operating, you can work with rather than against yourself.

You see situations where you repeat yourself. The patterns that come back. The automatic interpretations that limit you. And you can start asking them questions. Not to eliminate them. To understand where they come from and what they protect.

It's a job that takes time. Who asks for honesty. But it opens up new possibilities. Because as long as your subjectivity remains implicit, it governs you. As soon as it becomes explicit, you take control.

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