Identified barriers show what truly stops change.
In the Humanet model, this dimension describes the ability to recognise obstacles that make change difficult—both external ones and those arising from beliefs, fears, habits or entrenched ways of responding.
What are identified barriers?
Identified barriers refer to the moment when a person begins to see more concretely what makes change difficult. It is no longer only a general feeling that “something is hard”, but a clearer recognition of where the blockage really appears.
Barriers may be external—for example organisational, financial, relational or situational. They may also arise from internal patterns: ways of thinking, beliefs, fears, automatic reactions or deeply rooted habits of action.
What does this dimension assess?
The identified-barriers dimension shows to what extent a person can recognise and organise the obstacles that keep change from moving forward.
- the ability to point out concretely what makes change difficult,
- distinguishing real constraints from fears, beliefs and assumptions,
- awareness of one’s own habitual reactions that block action,
- recognising barriers that can be solved, bypassed or weakened,
- assessing which obstacles currently have the strongest impact on the change process,
- the ability to distinguish barriers to overcome from those that require acceptance or a change of approach.
Meaning in the change process
Recognising barriers is an important stage in moving from tension to action. It helps clarify which obstacles are real, which arise from interpreting the situation, and which can be addressed by changing one’s approach, decisions or way of acting.
This dimension does not yet mean that change has been made. It does show, however, that a person is beginning to see the terrain they are moving through: obstacles, constraints, possible detours and the places where a new strategy is needed.