Employee resistance to change is still a major headache for executives responsible for digital transformation initiatives, according to a recent survey of 1,000 C-level executives worldwide conducted by ThoughtLab and ServiceNow. They uniformly identified this resistance as the main challenge to changing the status quo in their businesses. Yet when companies are able to deliver an improved employee experience, executives across industries report tangible benefits such as increased productivity and revenue.

In 1969, sociologist Paul R. Lawrence published a groundbreaking Harvard Business Review article that articulated a new approach to change management. While executives often thought of employee resistance to change as an obstacle to overcome, Lawrence encouraged leaders to view resistance as “a useful red flag.” Much like a human body sending out pain signals, the resistance doesn’t tell you exactly what’s wrong, but it does tell you there is a problem.

More than half a century later, Lawrence’s argument resonates with Cen “April” Yue, a professor of marketing, advertising, and communications at the University of Connecticut. Yue, whose research looks at how executives can orchestrate positive change in organizations, describes employee resistance as a cognitive or emotional distress signal. On a cognitive level, employees might resist because they don’t have the bandwidth to change. On an emotional level, they might feel too overwhelmed, stressed, or uncertain.

To sell employees on a new technology or direction, leaders should embrace transparent communication and empathy. “Leaders can influence outcomes by communicating frequently and effectively to employees,” Yue says. “Employees need to see that the leader knows what they’re going through.”

In his 1969 article, Lawrence argues that organizational change always has a technical and a social aspect. A change will not only impact the physical routine of the job, but also alter established relationships within an organization. Executives often overlook the social element when they try to help their employees adjust to a new way of working.