Immunity to Change : a Practical Experience

By Madinah Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship (MILE)

Dr. Robert Kegan’s and Lahey’s Book “Immunity to Change,” show how our individual beliefs--along with the collective mind-sets in our organizations--combine to create a natural but powerful immunity to change. By revealing how this mechanism holds us back, Kegan and Lahey give us the keys to unlock our potential and finally move forward. And by pinpointing and uprooting our own immunities to change, we can bring our organizations forward with us.
The authors explain that everybody with immunity to change has two types of commitment: visible commitment and hidden commitment. Visible commitment is what we express as our commitment, while the hidden commitment is our inner desires and our assumptions that support these desires. The third element is the behavior that is working against the change. The authors define this as doing, or sometimes not doing, something. The simplest example to illustrate this theory is weight loss. The visible commitment of somebody is to lose weight. The behavior requiring change is overeating or eating when the person isn’t hungry. If the person wants to lose weight, why does he behave in the opposite way? Because there is a hidden commitment. The person may want to be full of energy, may believe that eating is fun or doesn’t give value to being physically attractive.
The authors argue that people cannot change because of their hidden commitments: If we can think and talk about our hidden commitments and supporting assumptions then, we can keep up with our visible commitments.
Dr. Robert Kegan, the Co-Director of Change Leadership Group at Harvard Kennedy School of Government will be giving a detailed training module titled “Immunity to Change in Government” in the Madinah Institute for Leadership & Entrepreneurship’s next executive education program; Leadership Program on High Performance Governments which will be commencing May 7th and ends May 11th, 2011 and will be held in Madinah, Saudi Arabia.

Dr. Robert Kegan is also the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and awards, his thirty years of research and writing on adult development have influenced the practice of coaching, psychotherapy, management, and leadership; and impacted the disciplines of psychology, education, theology, literary criticism, medicine, and political science. At Harvard alone, his work is read in courses at the Schools of Education, Business, Government, and Medicine. His seminal books, “The Evolving Self” and “In Over Our Heads”, have been published in several languages throughout the world. In addition to his faculty appointment at HGSE, Kegan serves as educational chair of the Institute for Management and Leadership in Education; as codirector of a joint program with the Harvard Medical School to bring principles of adult learning to the reform of medical education; and as codirector of the Change Leadership Group, a program for the training of change leadership coaches for school and district leaders. Kegan, a licensed clinical psychologist and practicing therapist, lectures widely to professional and lay audiences, and consults in the area of professional development.

If you are interested in learning more about the Leadership Program on High Performance Governments and other upcoming executive education programs please visit www.mile.org or view videos of professors in action on http://www.youtube.com/user/milemadinah.

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About The Author
The Madinah Institute for Leadership & Entrepreneurship (MILE) is the first of its kind non-profit world-class executive education institute that works with top academic institutions, consulting organizations and professional groups from around the world and is under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz bin Majed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Governor of Madinah.