Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization (Leadership for the Common Good)

The idea behind the immunity to change is that we do not merely have these fears; we sensibly, even artfully, protect ourselves from them. We create ways of dealing with the anxiety these fears provoke. We are not only afraid; we take action to combat our fears. We defend ourselves from what terrifies us. We are actively (but not necessarily consci

One sign that you have come up with an adaptive formulation of your challenge is when you can see clearly why a technical approach—going straight to the obstructive behaviors in column 2 and trying to eliminate or reduce them—is not a winning plan. Given how well these same behaviors serve the commitments of column 3, you would be inclined to keep

Every executive was asked to identify a single goal that “would excite you personally if you were able to make big gains on this goal” and “would clearly enable you to add more value to the company.” The goal should not be something technical that you could accomplish by learning some new skill. Rather it should clearly involve your own growth as a

We are at another critical point here, a place where, if you do not take this to sufficient depth, the map you come up with will not have enough power. If you haven’t located a genuine “oh, shit” kind of feeling, you are probably not there yet. You have to really reach some fear, and if you haven’t gotten there yet, you might ask yourself, “and wha

The big assumptions make visible a bigger world that, until now, you have not allowed yourself to venture into.

You need to get to a place where you feel yourself at risk in some way; where you are unprotected from something that feels dangerous to you.