The Real Reason People Won’t Change Robert 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.

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.