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- Vol 6 PE: App E
immunity to changecompeting commitmentsbig assumptionspsychological equilibriumdiagnostic mappingadaptive challengesbehavioral experimentationBook Evidence summaryAt a glance
Kegan and Lahey explain why sincere commitments and strong incentives often fail to produce lasting personal or organizational change. People may be pursuing a visible improvement goal while simultaneously protecting less visible competing commitments, such as avoiding embarrassment, conflict, loss of status, or evidence of inadequacy.
Key ideas
These protective behaviors are coherent responses to “big assumptions” about what would happen if the person acted differently. Together they form an immunity to change: a system that preserves psychological equilibrium while defeating the stated goal. The authors provide a four-column diagnostic map for identifying the improvement commitment, behaviors that work against it, hidden competing commitments, and underlying assumptions. Change then proceeds through safe, observable tests of those assumptions rather than willpower or exhortation alone.
Why it matters
Case studies apply the method to individuals, teams, and organizations and connect it with adult development, arguing that adaptive challenges require changes in meaning-making, not merely new technical skills. The framework treats resistance as intelligible and potentially protective, enabling leaders and learners to approach it with curiosity, evidence, and gradual experimentation.
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Edition abbreviations
- TE
- Teacher Edition
- PE
- Practice Edition
- RE
- Research Edition
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