Addressing Personal and Organizational Immunity to Change

Whether in our personal lives or at work we are only too familiar with the experience of committing to making a change –and failing to follow through. We tend put this failure down to our own lack of willpower or others’ resistance. We can find ourselves stuck in frustrating loops -desiring change which we never achieve. 

In this workshop we will draw on the work of Robert Keegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey of Harvard University to suggest new ways of breaking these cycles. We will suggest that the underlying cause may not be a lack of willpower but rather a rational protection to the emotional impact that change can bring about.

You will have the opportunity to explore your own ‘immunity to change’ identifying some of the barriers and self-limiting beliefs that may be preventing you from making changes in your life and your work. You will develop for yourself alternative steps that you can take which may help you to make progress. You will also have the opportunity to apply these principles to the barriers to change your organization is facing.

Learning objectives

• Explore your own ‘immunity to change’ in relation to a specific change that you would like to make in your life or work.
• Develop alternative action options and steps that can test beliefs and assumptions that may be getting in your way.
• Apply the ‘immunity to change’ principles to your team or organization and what action you might take as a result.