User:Srh2023/Robert Kegan

How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work and Immunity to Change

Immunity to change

Immunity to Change (2009), the next book by Kegan and Lahey, revisits the immunity map of their previous book. The authors describe three dimensions of immunity to change: the change-preventing system (thwarting challenging aspirations), the feeling system (managing anxiety), and the knowing system (organizing reality). They further illustrate their method with a number of actual case studies from their experiences as consultants, and they connect the method to a dialectic of three mindsets, called socialized mind, self-authoring mind, and self-transforming mind. (These correspond to three of the "evolutionary truces" or "orders of consciousness" in Kegan's earlier books.) Kegan and Lahey also borrow and incorporate some frameworks and methods from other thinkers, including Ronald A. Heifetz's distinction between technical and adaptive learning, Chris Argyris's ladder of inference, and a reworded version of the four stages of competence. They also provide more detailed guidance on how to test big assumptions.

The revised immunity map worksheet, introduced in Immunity to Change, has five interlinked columns designed to reduce error rates and meticulously target anxiety mechanisms that contribute to immunity to change:

• (0) Generating ideas: Individuals will undergo self-reflective processes to diagnose problems in life that inhibit development. These problems typically transcend both the workplace and home life and affect most aspects of life, including relationships. It is the individual's responsibility to acknowledge their weaknesses or flawed traits that are the root cause of their problems.
• (1) Commitment (improvement) goals: In this column, individuals make commitment goals stated in a positive way focusing on development rather than what actions will cease. These goals emphasize proactive actions that replace bad habits, solidifying commitment. The goal is something that an individual feels a deep need to improve, benefiting themselves but also the people around them.
• (2) Doing / not doing: This step includes identifying actions that hinder individuals from achieving their commitment goals. It goes beyond general behavior and focuses on individual actions that occur throughout everyday life.
• (3) Hidden competing commitment (and worry box): The hidden competing commitment column often evokes a visceral reaction as it develops into unpleasant emotions stemming from deep-rooted fears and worries. To fill this column, individuals examine the doing and not doing column and imagine doing the opposite. Hidden competing commitments represent unspoken or unconscious actions that protect individuals from experiencing their worries and fears.
• (4) Big assumption: The big assumption refers to an individual's views of the world, the foundation for the hidden competing commitments. Many individuals hold on to perceived, even if they are misconstrued or inaccurately represent life. The assumptions are not based on statistics or rationality but rather on one's own subjective experience.
• (5) First S-M-A-R-T test: Safe, Modest, Actionable, Research stance (not a self-improvement stance), Testable: The SMART Test is employed to challenge big assumptions. The tests are safe and modest in what actions an individual can undertake. It is testable because there of a source of measurement to compare data.

The immunity to change framework has been cited favorably by Chris Argyris, Kenneth J. Gergen, Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries, and Tony Schwartz.