Chapter 2: Uncovering the Immunity to Change

In Chapter 2 we meet Ron, Peter, and two partners in an international strategy consulting firm.  We meet them through their immunity maps.  Their maps are being shared to help us understand what the immunity to change actually is.  In the introduction, the authors told us, "In Chapter 2 we introduce our discovery of a previously hidden phenomenon that prevents us from making the very changes we passionately intend - the dynamic we call 'the immunity to change.'" (p. 7).

I am going to suggest to you that if you have not done so already, it's a good time to get the map you made while we were in Cambridge back out and reacquaint yourself with it as you experience this chapter.  There is an honesty that comes through in the sample maps that I found myself reexamining my own map to make sure was there.  I tweaked and added a few things to my own map and re-examined by big assumptions.  I'm interested to know if you had the same experience.

Let's begin again with a few thoughts, ideas, and quotes from Chapter 2:

• p. 31 - "Seeing how a challenge brings us to the current limits of our own mental growth is obviously not a cognitive matter alone.  Instead, it will connect head and heart, thinking and feeling." 
• p. 34 - The last paragraph before figure 2-1 in the print based book (it's the paragraph that begins "In developing our X-ray further..." for those of you reading digitally), caused me to take a really hard look at my second column doing/not doing behaviors.  I don't think I understood this part of the activity this clearly while we were in Cambridge.  I appreciated the wording here, "Instead of regarding them as things that just need to go away, we look at the behaviors as a precious resource, valuable information that can be mined to develop a more satisfying picture of what may really be happening."
• p. 37 - Technical solutions are easier so part of our diagnosis must always remain on determining whether a challenge is technical or adaptive. "We have always told our clients that if they can make the changes they need to by recipe, by willpower, by creating some plan to extinguish certain behaviors and amplify others - like submitting to a diet - then by all means that is exactly what they should do."  How do you know if it's technical or adaptive.  If you've tried and failed to the point the 107% rule is getting you - you may need to switch gears. 
• p. 38 - "Change fails to occur because we mean both things.  It fails to occur because we are a living contradiction."
• Continuing with that idea...p. 39 - "...until we understand the commitments that make the obstructive behaviors at the same time brilliantly effective, we haven't correctly formulated the problem."
• Another prompt to pull out your map and take another look...p. 42 - "the third-column commitments are the most powerful entry points to adaptive change, so it is important to recognize that while many people can share the same obstructive behavior, the real motivation for that behavior (the thing that makes it brilliant) might be quite different."
• The section on our immunity to change systems as anxiety management systems was very powerful to me.  For someone who personally values the idea of "safety" very much, the line at the bottom of page 50 and the idea that I'm trying to break free of this immunity to change is very disconcerting - "An immunity to change, as the name implies, is a system of self-protection." 
• p. 53 - "Growth in our way of knowing - adapting - involves disturbing this balance, and learning to look at what before we were looking through.  

Now a few questions to get our discussion started:

1. Did anything in this chapter cause you to re-evaluate your own map?  Does being outside of the 'laboratory' that was our safe space in Cambridge cause you to see your map differently?
2. Identify something that you've successfully tackled as a technical challenge that you think might be an adaptive challenge for others.  Why were you able to address this change technically with success?
3. Thinking about the quote on page 39, identify one obstructive behavior that is brilliantly effective for you right now.  Is it something you're tackling in your current map or is it an entirely different immunity to change that you perhaps need to start spending some time mapping?
4. When have you demonstrated courage to change?  How will you use the positive aspects of that experience from your past to help guide you in your current efforts to break your immunity to change?

Chapter 1

Don't forget - this week only we have two posts - so if you want to read in order, scroll down and read the post on the preface and intro first and then come back to this one.

Chapter 1: Reconceiving the Challenge of Change

In the introduction, our authors told us that Chapter 1 "provides the theoretical and empirical foundations for all the accounts and practices that follow" (p. 6).  Like our introduction post, I'm going to begin with a few lines/thoughts that really resonated with me.

• "...human capability will be the critical variable in the new century."  p. 11
• It's hard not to feel both anxiety and excitement with this statement, "When we experience the world as "too complex" we are not just experiencing the complexity of hte world.  We are experiencing a mismatch between the world's complexity and our own at this moment.  There are only two logical ways to mend this mismatch - reduce the world's complexity or increase our own." - p. 12

A few questions to get our conversation started:

1. Do you agree with the statement that human capability will be the critical variable in the new century?  Why or why not?  Do you think this statement has always been true or does it have new meaning in the current world context?  
2. What are you doing to make your workplace "the most fertile ground in the world for the growth of talent?" (p. 11)
3. When you consider the role of information in terms of gaining/giving political power, how does the discussion of the three plateaus of mental complexity (starts on p. 16) make you think of the role of mental complexity in applying the political frame in your work context?

Preface & Intro

Welcome to our first two discussion posts about the Immunity to Change book.  This week we have two posts just to keep things neat and orderly.  The preface and intro are covered in this post.  Chapter 1 is covered in our second post.

Don't feel as though you need to limit your comments to the points in the book I pick up on.  I, as I'm sure our other guest facilitators, will pick out the points and craft discussion topics that have the most meaning to us.  You should add in the comments the points and questions that are of interest to you.

Let's dig right into the preface.  A few quotes/lines that really spoke to me:

• "Building on our colleague Ronald Heifetz's heuristic distinction between "technical" and "adaptive" challenges, we can say that some personal-change goals - especially those we know we must accomplish but still cannot - require that we ourselves 'get bigger'; that is, we must adapt in order to accomplish them." - p. xii
• Keeping in that same context..."...the change challenges today's leaders and their subordinates face are not, for the most part, a problem of will.  The problem is the inability to close the gap between what we genuinely, even passionately, want and what we are actually able  to do." - p. 2
• I also found the section that begins on p.2 entitled "Three Problems Create the Context for this Book" to be very thought provoking overall.  The paragraph on page 3 that talks about our public optimism vs. our private pessimism really resonates with me.

So, as we get set to dive into Part 1 of the book, let's start our discussion with the following.  Remember - this is just a suggestion of where to start...you take the discussion in other directions!

1. When has your technical learning let you down and you realize that what you really need is an adaptive change?  As an alternative, what is something you've passionately wanted to do by been unable to do.
2. Is there an area of change you're facing now where your publicly stated optimism doesn't match up with your private pessimism?  What is it and why do you think you're feeling so disjointed on this topic?