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Immunity to Change
Why it matters?
Our individual beliefs – coupled with the collective mindsets of our organizations, communities and institutions – combine to create a natural but very powerful immunity to change.
In order to unlock the blocked potential, we need to reveal how this thinking holds us back and unwind it to move forward.
This is how we build the momentum to transform our lives and our work. The work starts with a very simple thought: if you know you need to change something, and you’re fully committed to changing it, why are you not doing it?.”
This is often met with an extinguished feeling of confusion, disbelief, or shame. Instead, let the steps below empower you to untap that resistance and shift yourself into new possibilities without relapsing.
How it works?
- Commit to something you want to change: identify a specific goal. Make sure the need to change this is strong and perhaps something that you’ve tried changing before but failed at repeatedly. After labeling the goal, explore, “What do you want to do differently? What has to change to get there? What will happen if you don’t change?”
- Describe the behavior you want to change: clearly and honestly write what you are doing to prevent this change from happening. Be specific about the actions and behaviors that are preventing you from making the change you want.
- Uncover your hidden competing commitments: this is where you shift from doing the actions in Step 2 and doing the opposite instead. What is your emotional reaction? Be descriptive of what this completely opposite way of doing things will produce and then think about the underlying commitment that exists to prevent this from happening. (Ie. “People will think I’m crazy if I share this idea > I am committed to having people rely on me for sound decisions”). List as many competing commitments you can think of; know they are very covert, so do some digging!
- Tease out your big assumptions: once you’ve teased out a few competing commitments, identify the underlying assumptions behind them. Questions to help you might be, “Would that be so bad? Why am I so afraid of this? What’s the worst thing that can happen?” Then ask yourself, “is that a true assumption or not?” Go to the root of deep fears or self-defeating thoughts which are not based on truth.
- Test your big assumptions: go a step further from your opinion and test whether the root of your problem is true or not. Keep in mind that your test can pass the Kegan and Lahey SMART test (different to the coaching SMART acronym for goal setting). Make sure testing your assumption is Safe, Modest, Actionable, Research-based (gather data), and Tested for a result that confirms or denies the assumption.
Examples
Spend time to examine your assumptions for any real truth so you can see the world through a different lens.
Sources:
Immunity to Change by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey