You know it’s impossible to drive with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake. But that’s what it feels like when you try to change behaviors. You come up against your inability to make change — let alone sustain — the change. This can happen despite our good intentions.
Change management is not about lacking the will power.
It’s not about being lazy or lacking will power. It’s because we have deep-seated — often protective — dynamics at work. These are called “competing commitments” by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey, the creators of the Immunity to Change™ process*. Kegan and Lahey use the metaphor of the immune system to explain what makes it so hard to change behaviors that keep us from reaching our goals.
When our bodies detect a threat — a virus, bacterial or other intruder — our immune system kicks in to ward off the threat. This self-protective physiological response is automatic and we’re often unaware of it. A similar self-protective, often unconscious, psychological process takes place when confronted by change.
Overcome Immunity to Change
Like trying to drive with your foot on the break, as much as you want to move forward and make a change, competing forces hold you back. Overcoming “immunity to change” is the objective of this work.
Change management resistance from the Harvard Business Review:
“Resistance to change does not reflect opposition, nor is it merely a result of inertia. Instead, even as they hold a sincere commitment to change, many people are unwittingly applying productive energy toward a hidden competing commitment. The resulting dynamic equilibrium stalls the effort in what looks like resistance but is in fact a kind of personal immunity to change.”
The Immunity to Change™ workshop is for business teams in small group formats as well as for individuals in personalized coaching sessions. Immunity to Change™ shows you how you get in your own way, and, most importantly how to get out of your own way. We work with the Guide to Immunity to Change™ Exercise workbook from the Kegan and Lahey training, following a process that is centered on creating and utilizing your own personal “change map.”
Debunk your Big Assumptions and get out of your own way
- Outline your personal development goals
- Uncover the hidden “Competing Commitments” that are holding you back
- Hone in on the buried anxieties and “Big Assumptions” that underlie them
- Formulate specific actions to test and debunk your Big Assumptions
- Identify concrete steps you can take to reach your goal
Get started building your immunity to change today and schedule your free consultation with Lyn Ciocca
From Oprah Magazine:
Not being able to change doesn’t mean we’re lazy, stubborn, or weak. A pair of Harvard educators argue that our best-laid plans often fall through for smart, self-protective (and ingeniously hidden) reasons.
* Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey have written two books in support of this work; Immunity to Change (Harvard Business School Press, 2009) and How The Way We Talk Can Change The Way We Work (Jossey-Bass 2001).
Lyn Ciocca McCaleb works with individuals in one-on-one coaching and organizational teams to help overcome immunity to change. Schedule your consultation today.
