Overcoming Your Immunity to Change
Have you ever had a goal that you desperately wanted to achieve but despite what you thought were your best efforts, you've never been successful in realizing it?
I know I have! I recently re-read Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization by Harvard professors Rogert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey. Each time I revisit this book, my mind is blown by the brilliance and wisdom within its pages! Kegan and Lahey truly understand human nature and dig into what blocks us from making the changes we say we so desperately desire.
My Immunity to Change Story
So what’s my immunity to change story, you ask? About ten years ago, I had an idea for a leadership book. At the time, there was really nothing like it on the market. It would have been truly unique. I really wanted to write it, but I didn’t. I used all of the typical excuses to explain to myself why I wasn’t writing it — not enough time, not enough knowledge, not enough experience, etc, etc. So I tried to solve those technical challenges by scheduling time to write in my calendar, by reading everything I could get my hands on to expand my knowledge, and by building my coaching practice. But I still didn’t write the book! Why? Because writing a book was not a technical challenge but rather an adaptive challenge for me.
Technical vs. Adaptive Challenges
What is the difference between a technical challenge and an adaptive challenge? Why is it important to know the difference?
Technical challenges are those that are easily solved through learning a new skill or using a new tool. Adaptive challenges, on the other hand, are those that require us to make changes to our values, beliefs, relationships, or approach to work or leadership. Adaptive challenges typically require a change in mindset.
The tricky thing is that almost any challenge can be technical or adaptive, depending on the person who is struggling with it. For example, time management might be a technical challenge for someone who lacks basic organizational skills or who isn’t skilled in using Outlook effectively. But time management may also be an adaptive challenge. The person may need to examine her values and priorities to help her align her use of time to what’s most important. Or she might need to change her relationship with time and think about it in a completely different way.
Overcoming My Immunity to Change
As I honestly examined my own challenge in writing a book, I realized it was an adaptive challenge. In order to make progress and achieve this goal I greatly desired, I had to:
Take a fearless inventory of what I was doing and not doing that actively undermined my ability to accomplish my goal of writing a book.
Identify the hidden competing commitments that were keeping me stuck, with one foot on the gas and one foot on the break.
Identify my “big assumptions,” the ways I understood myself and the world that I saw as TRUTH.
Design small tests of my assumptions to help me begin shifting my mindset.
Over the next several weeks, I’ll share what I learned about myself through taking these four steps. I hope you’ll read along and join me on your own immunity to change journey!