If you find behavior change trivially easy and are someone who can simply make up their mind to instantly and effortlessly adopt new and improved actions forevermore…

If you have kept every New Year's resolution you ever made easily and without deviation…

If you can immediately and durably incorporate all critical feedback, no matter how painful…

Then these next few newsletters might not be for you.

However, if you fall into the other 99.63% of the population, read on.

Immunity to Change

This week, we begin a multi-part deep dive into Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey’s Immunity to Change process, as described in their 2009 book of the same title. It is an approach we first encountered a decade ago. We were fortunate to be trained in its use by Kegan and Lahey themselves.

The Immunity to Change process is powerful. Done properly, it will eradicate any sense of failure you might have experienced when your past attempts at change fell short, leaving you with deep compassion for yourself and others struggling to change.

Most importantly, it works.

Enough with the preliminaries; let’s dive right in!

The Immunity to Change Map

Create a document, digital or physical, and divide your workspace into four equal-width columns. Landscape orientation works best. This template will become your Immunity to Change Map, which, when completed, will enable you to masterfully navigate the challenging terrain of behavior change.

We will focus on one column at a time, not to keep you in suspense but because jumping ahead tends to cloud our thinking about the column at hand.

Once you have used the process a few times, you will obviously know what lies farther down the map, but you will also better understand the pitfalls of jumping ahead and how to avoid them.

Column One: Your Stated Commitment

Label the left-most column “Stated Commitment.”

Column One is your starting point, and it is critical that you spend enough time here to clarify exactly what you want to accomplish. If you do not know your starting point, no map will help.

How to Create a Compelling Commitment

Start by asking yourself:

If I could get better at one thing—the one big thing that would make the biggest difference to me in meeting my goals—what would it be?

Once you have a draft Stated Commitment, make sure you can answer in the affirmative to each of the following six questions:

1. Is it true for you?

This seems obvious, but you need to actually mean it. Otherwise, the answer to "why am I failing to implement this change?" is "because I was not on board in the first place."

Do you think you should make this change, or do you think other people think you should make this change?

2. Does it implicate you?

Your stated commitment must be something for which you are accountable. Sometimes we unconsciously shift responsibility to others, and the difference can be subtle.

"I want to encourage my team to be more proactive by creating a more positive work environment" is a little more about the team and the environment. It is not quite the same as saying, "I want to offer more positive feedback to my team.” 

3. Is it stated affirmatively?

It is far more empowering to run toward something you want than away from something you don’t.

“I want to practice mindfulness twenty minutes a day, every day” is more effective than “I want to be less distracted and anxious.”

4. Is it a behavior, not an outcome?

This one is crucial: An effective commitment is an observable behavior, not a result.

“I want to eat a healthier, lower-calorie diet” is a behavior. “I want to lose twenty pounds” is an outcome. You can control your actions. You cannot control outcomes.

An important distinction: The behavior might be observable only to you. Thoughts are behaviors, too. “I want to be more open to my team's ideas” is a behavior you can observe in yourself.

5. Is there room for improvement?

Get real. Even if you would rather not admit it, your reaction to your stated commitment should be, “Yeah, I can do better.”

6. Is it important to you?

Behavior change usually means giving up something that matters to you, even if you are not consciously aware of what that something is (deliberate teaser for a future column).

For your commitment to succeed, it needs to be something that truly matters to you. On a scale of one to seven in importance, your stated commitment should be a six or seven.

Common Pitfalls

Column one is deceptively difficult ,and it is not unusual to get stuck. It can be hard to articulate what it is we actually want to change.

If you find yourself framing the goal as an outcome, ask yourself: what would I need to get better at to make that happen?

• Framed as an Outcome: "I want to double my department's sales next quarter."
• Reframed as a Behavior: "I need to improve my ability to motivate and support my sales team, ensuring they have the tools and training required to succeed."

If you find yourself framing the goal negatively, ask yourself: so, if i were to stop that, what would I need to get better at instead?

• Framed Negatively: "I want to stop being unorganized with my schedule."
• Reframed Positively: "I want to get better at planning my weekly schedule in advance, prioritizing tasks to manage my time more efficiently."

If the goal does not implicate you, ask yourself: what is the most powerful change or improvement I could make to change or improve the situation?

• Implicates Others: "I want my team members to deliver work on time."
• Implicates You: "I will provide clearer expectations and guidance during project planning, checking in regularly to address obstacles and offer support."

If the goal does not feel powerful or important, ask yourself: what could make an improvement goal powerful and exciting for me?

• Weak and Unimportant: "I want to improve my presentation skills."
• Powerful and Important: "I will enhance my storytelling and visual design skills so that my presentations inspire others and build my reputation as a compelling speaker."

Next Week

If you can craft a Stated Commitment that meets this criteria, something that truly matters to you, write it in Column One and know that you have laid the foundation for successful change.

With Column One complete, label Column Two “Doing / Not Doing.” We will explain what that means in Part Two!