The Real Reason People Won’t ChangeRobert Kegan & Lisa Laskow Lahey

Harvard Business Review, 2002

教師 : 洪一碩 2014. 12. 03

The resistance of change

Fear a shift in power

The need to learn new skills

The stress of having to join a new team

A person is quite capable to make change but….

Resistance of change

Even as they hold a sincere commitment of change, many people are unwittingly applying productive energy toward a hidden competing commitment.

Looks like a resistance of change but is in fact personal.

An unrecognized competing commitment to avoid the even tougher assignment.

To change

Challenges the very psychological foundations upon which people function.

Asking people to call into question beliefs they’ve long held close.

Some people will opt not to disrupt their immunity to change, choosing instead to continue their fruitless struggle.

Guide people through this with understanding and sensitivity.

To help them become more effective.

Managers are psychologists.

Helping people overcome their limitations is effective management.

Capable managers in competing commitments

John: communication, interaction, color, sarcastic, close or his racial group?

Helen: project, maintaining being a subordinate, promotion, handling tasks.

The paralyzing effect of competing commitments.

Struggling unconsciously toward an opposing agenda.

Diagnosing Immunity of Change

Questions to uncover competing commitments. Reflect on questions and the implications of their answers.

Examining these commitments to determine the underlying assumptions at their core.

Start the process of changing their behavior

Uncovering competing commitments-1

What would you like to see changed at work, so that you could be more effective or so that work would be more satisfying?

What commitments does your complaint imply?

What are you doing, or not doing that is keeping your commitment from being more fully realized?

(John: getting bad news and shooting at the source)

(Mary: didn’t delegate, didn’t release al the info)

To understand why people behave in ways that undermine their own success.

Uncovering competing commitments-2

Consider the consequences of forgoing the behavior

If you imagine doing the opposite of the undermining behavior, do you detect in yourself and discomfort, worry, or vague fear?

(Tom: I’m afraid I’ll hear about a problem that I can’t fix.)

(Mary: Feared people wouldn’t make good decisions.)

Uncovering competing commitments-3

By engaging in this undermining behavior, what worrisome outcome are you committed to preventing?

(Tom: I am committed to not learning about problems I can’t fix. [by intimidating his staff])

(Mary: I am committed to making sure my group does not make decisions that I don’t like.)

Competing commitments are very personal, reflecting vulnerabilities that people fear will undermine how they are regarded both by others and themselves.

Competing commitments

Not weaknesses

Self-protection

Protection of what?

Big assumptions- deeply rooted beliefs about themselves and the world around them.

Big Assumptions

Was accepted as reality and often formed long ago.

Seldom been critically examined.

Tom: I am committed to not hearing about problems I can’t fix.

I assume that if I did hear about problems I can’t fix, people would discover I am not qualified to do my job.

Uncomfortable. Engaged and to support it.

Examining the big assumptions

1. Awareness.

How and in what contexts.

(John: be estranged from his ethnic group)

2. Evidence. The validity. Filtering information.

(John: another dept.; urgent work with teams)

3. History. When & how. Early life experience. Protection.

4. Test and change with support.

(John: short-term committee)

5. Evaluate and restart.

A D ia g n o stic T est for Im m u n ity to Change

The most important steps in d ia g n os in g immunity to ch a ng e a re u nc ove ring em p loyee s’ co m pe tin g commitments a n d une arth in g their b ig a ssu m p tion s. To do so , we ask a se rie s o f q u estion s and reco rd key re sp o n se s in a simple g rid . B e lo w we’ve lis te d the re spo n ses fo r six p eo p le who went th rough this exerc ise , in c lu d in g the examples d esc r ibe d in the text. The g rid paints a p ic tu re o f the ch a n ge -im m u n ity system, making sen se o f a p re v io u s ly p u zz lin g dynamic.

Stated co m m itm e n t I a m c o m m itte d to . . .

What am I doing, or not doing, that is keeping my sta te d co m m itm en t from being fully realized?

Competing co m m itm en ts

Big assum p tio n s

Jo h n

. . . high quality co m m u n ica tion with my co lle a g u es.

Sometimes I use sa rcastic humor to get my point across.

I am committed to m a in ta in - ing a distance from my white colleagues.

I assume I w ill lose my au th en - tic connection to my racial group if I get too in teg ra ted into the m a in strea m .

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T o m

Change A cco u n t: s6 6 2 0 7 0 4

. . . hearing from my sub- ordinates and maximizing the flo w of in fo rm ation into my office.

mance from my team m em b ers or m y se lf; I accept mediocre products and thinking too o ften ; I don’t prioritize. I don’t ask questions or ask to be kept in the loop on sensitive or delicate metters; I shoot th e messenger when I hear b ad news.

ting my relationship with my boss by le a v in g the m en tee role. I am committed to not learn- ing about things I can’t do any- thing ab ou t.

supporting me if I move toward becoming his p ee r; I assume that I don’t have w h a t it takes to su cc e ss fu lly carry out a cutting-edge project. I assume as a leader I should be able to address a ll p ro b le m s ; I assume I w ill be seen as incom- petent if I can’t so lve a ll prob- lems that come up.

Mary . . . distributed leader- ship by enabling people to make decisions.

I don’t delegate enough; I don’t pass on the necessary informa- tion to the people I d is t rib u te leadership to.

I am committed to having things go my w a y , to being in control, and to ensuring th a t the work is done to my high stan d a rd s .

I assume that other people will waste my time and theirs if I don’t step in ; I assume o th e rs aren’t as smart as I am.

Bill . . . being a team player. I don’t collaborate enough; I make unilateral decisions to o o f ten ; I don’t re a lly take peo- p le ’s input into acco u n t.

I am committed to being th e one who gets the credit and to av o id in g the fru s tra t io n or conflict that comes w ith collaboration.

I assume that no one will appreciate me if I am not seen as the source of su c ce ss; I assume nothing good will come of my being frustrated or

Jan e

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I am committed to not settin g

in conflict. I assume that if I take my

Toward a positive process

Invaluable insight about the ways impeding their own progress.

Understand the complexities of people’s behavior and guide them through a productive process.