Is change out of reach?

That’s a question that Harvard faculty Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey stumbled upon while researching the different stages of adult development. They discovered that when doctors tell their heart patients they will die if they don’t change their habits, only 1 in 7 will be able to follow through successfully. As it turns out desire and motivation aren’t enough: even when it’s literally a matter of life and death, the ability to change remains maddeningly elusive.

Given that the status quo is so potent, how can we change ourselves and our organizations? Their answer is a coaching tool called Immunity To Change™. It shows how our individual beliefs, along with the collective mindsets in our organizations, combine to create a natural but powerful immunity to change. By revealing how this mechanism holds us back, clients discover keys to unlock their potential and finally move forward. And by pinpointing and uprooting their own immunities to change, they can bring their organizations forward with them.

As I sometimes witnessed my clients struggle to make sustainable changes in their lives, I decided to train with Robert Kegan & Lisa Lahey recently. It turns out that theirs is a powerful coaching tool indeed. I have used it with several clients and the new insights they gained were impressive AND paved the way to sustainable change in their lives.