Immunity to Change

Many people have the experience of being committed to achieving a change in their life, only to find that they never quite make it happen. This can occur in a wide variety of contexts, in one’s intimate relationship, at work, in relation to one’s friends or children or in an attitude to, for example,  money. A recent study showed that when doctors tell heart patients they will die if they don’t change their habits, only one in seven will be able to follow through successfully. Desire and motivation aren’t enough: even when it’s literally a matter of life or death, the ability to change remains maddeningly elusive. The process described here enables anyone to discover why they are having difficulty making the changes that they want.

The process was developed by Robert Kegan and his associate Lisa Lahey and described in detail in their book published in 2009. That book was largely focussed on effecting change within an organisational setting. Here the focus is on a personal setting- but the process and steps involved are identical.

I recommend that you undertake this process by first downloading the Immunity to Change file. You can do this here (it is item 6). Then print a copy and then take the time to quietly work through the steps. Resist the temptation to look at all the steps before embarking on the process. It works best if you come to each step for the first time as you work through the exercise. It takes most people between 25 and 40 minutes to complete – so wait until you have that uninterrupted time available before starting.

When you are working through the process simply take one step at a time. Do not try to double think what is required of you. Simply logically figure out what is required of you and write it down. People with a therapeutic background sometimes find this difficult. As explained in the notes much depends upon the change that you choose to work on. The greater your commitment to making the change, and the more personal that the change is, then the greater will be your discovery about yourself.

If you would prefer to complete the exercise working from a screen then you can access a screen version here. Again don’t look at it until you have an uninterrupted 30 minutes or so available to complete the exercise.