The document discusses overcoming immunity to change. It notes that change is difficult and inhibits transformation, and that we often use technical solutions to address challenges that require adaptive changes. It advocates developing mental complexity to be successful in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world. The document discusses creating a personal diagnostic of immunity to change as it relates to a personal improvement goal in order to unlock new behaviors and growth.

1. OVERCOMING YOUR IMMUNITY TO CHANGE http://chrischan.com.au
@ChrisChanAU
CHRIS CHAN

2. Change is hard and inhibits agile and organizational transformation
from progressing.
We often use technical solutions (e.g. restructure and practices) to
address an adaptive challenge.
In today’s VUCA* world we need to change our form of mind and
develop our mental complexity to be successful in this environment.
You will create your own personal map or diagnostic of the ‘immunity
to change’ as it relates to your personal improvement goal so you
unlock new behaviors and grow your mental complexity.
* VUCA: (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous)
@ChrisChanAU
The narrative for today’s workshop……

3. @ChrisChanAU
SHIFTING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE – ITS GETTING WORSE!
Source: Version One 3rd Annual State of Agile Report, 2008
Version One 12th Annual State of Agile Report, 2018
2008
2018
45%
44%
32%

4. @ChrisChanAU
WHY DO TRANSFORMATION EFFORTS FAIL
1. Not Establishing a Great Enough Sense of Urgency
2. Not Creating a Powerful Enough Guiding Coalition
3. Lacking a Vision
4. Under communicating the Vision by a Factor of Ten
5. Not Removing Obstacles to the New Vision
6. Not Systematically Planning for, and Creating, Short-Term Wins
7. Declaring Victory Too Soon
Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail, John Kotter, HBR 2007
@ChrisChanAU

5. @ChrisChanAU
STAGES OF CULTURAL EVOLUTION
Adaptive Cultures, Alison Cameron
& Andrew Brown
@ChrisChanAU

6. @ChrisChanAU
UNDERSTANDING THE STAGES OF CULTURAL EVOLUTION
@ChrisChanAU Adaptive Cultures, Alison Cameron
& Andrew Brown

7. @ChrisChanAU
WHAT IS AGILE?
Image: Ahmed Sidky
@ChrisChanAU

8. Agile is ….
…. mindset
@ChrisChanAU

9. A different way of
observing, thinking,
understanding and
acting in the world
Agile
mindset is ….
@ChrisChanAU

10. Shayne Elliott,
CEO, ANZ
Changing people’s
frame of reference
has been the
hardest thing.
@ChrisChanAU

11. You can legislate all kind of behaviours
but you can’t legislate what or how
someone must believe.
It is our beliefs, some of which are
made possible by our form of mind, are
the roots from which all actions grow.
- Changing On The Job, Jennifer Garvey Berger
@ChrisChanAU

12. @ChrisChanAU
WE NEED A SHIFT IN MENTAL COMPLEXITY
As the world grows more complex, those in organizations want their
workforce to be able to handle complexity and ambiguity.
Coping well with such issues is not simply a skill anyone can acquire,
however, but a way of living in the world.
These ways of living in the world are not inborn, but rather are
developed over time as we increase our capacity to take
perspectives, view authority in new ways, and see shades of
grey where we once saw only black and white.
Changing on the Job, Jennifer Garvey Berger
@ChrisChanAU

13. @ChrisChanAU
ADAPTIVE CHALLENGE VS TECHNICAL PROBLEM
TECHNICAL ADAPTIVE
Easy to identify, clear, known repeated problem Difficult to identify, requires learning, unknown
situations
Lend themselves to quick and easy solutions Require changes in beliefs, hearts & mind,
relationships & approaches to work
Solved by authority or expert People with the challenge do the work of solving
it (not experts)
Require change in just one or a few places;
often contained within organizational boundaries
Require change in numerous places; usually
across organizational boundaries
Solutions can be implemented quickly often by
edict
Solutions require experiements and new
discoveries; cannot be implemented by edict
People are generally receptive to technical
solutions
People often resist even acknowledging adaptive
challenges
Adapted from Heifetz & Linsky
“The single biggest failure of leadership is to
treat adaptive challenges like technical problems”

14. @ChrisChanAU
ADAPTIVE VS TECHNICAL
ADAPTIVE CHALLENGE? TECHNICAL PROBLEM?

15. @ChrisChanAU
ADAPTIVE VS TECHNICAL
ADAPTIVE CHALLENGE? TECHNICAL PROBLEM?

16. @ChrisChanAU
ADAPTIVE VS TECHNICAL
ADAPTIVE CHALLENGE? TECHNICAL PROBLEM?

17. @ChrisChanAU
ADAPTIVE VS TECHNICAL
ADAPTIVE CHALLENGE? TECHNICAL PROBLEM?

18. @ChrisChanAU
ADAPTIVE VS TECHNICAL
ADAPTIVE CHALLENGE? TECHNICAL PROBLEM?

19. @ChrisChanAU
ADAPTIVE VS TECHNICAL
ADAPTIVE CHALLENGE? TECHNICAL PROBLEM?

20. @ChrisChanAU
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEARNING
Learning and growing are not the same!
LEARNINGis acquiring new skill or
knowledge that you add to your current
form of your mind.
Filing the bucket.
GROWINGis changing the very form of
your mind and your understanding
changes. We often call this
transformation.
Changing the form or growing the bucket.

21. @ChrisChanAU
ADULT DEVELOPMENT THEORY
Age and Mental Complexity
30 Years Ago Today
Immunity to Change, Kegan & Lahey

22. @ChrisChanAU
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
Immunity to Change, Kegan & Lahey
Mental Complexity is the qualitative different ways of
understanding the complex world around us

23. @ChrisChanAU
CONSTRUCTIVE DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY

24. @ChrisChanAU
SOCIALIZED MIND
• External sources shape their meaning-making. Shaped
by the definitions and expectations of our personal
environment.
• They internalize the ideas or emotions of others who
represent their meaning system and are guided by the
ideologies, institutions, or people that are most
important to them.
• They understand things from different points of view,
however, there is still an emphasis on their perception
being the right way of doing something. There is a focus
on following rules, traditions, and norms.

25. @ChrisChanAU
SELF-AUTHORING MIND
• Their own internal thoughts shape their meaning-
making.
• They author their own identity instead of being written
upon by society.
• They can reflect on their own actions and modify future
behavior to achieve desired results.
• The person is defined by abstract systems, theories or
ideologies.
• These are the people we read about in the literature
who “own” their work, who have articulated their
personal theories, who are self-guided, self-motivated,
self-evaluative, self-correcting.

26. @ChrisChanAU
SELF-TRANSFORMING MIND
• Can step back from and reflect on the limits of their own
ideology or personal authority.
• Can see that any one system or self-organization is in
some way partial or incomplete.
• Are less likely to see the world in terms of dichotomies
or polarities. They are more likely to understand and
deal well with paradox and with managing the tension of
opposites.
• They are also more likely to believe that what we often
think of as black and white are just various shades of
gray whose differences are made more visible by the
lighter or darker colors around them.

27. The success of
an intervention
depends on the
interior
condition of
the intervener
Bill O’Brien
CEO Hanover Insurance
@ChrisChanAU

28. @ChrisChanAU
WHY IS MENTAL COMPLEXITY IMPORTANT?
Each level represents a quite different way of knowing
the world.
Mental complexity strongly influences the perception,
direction and purpose of information sending and
receiving.
These meaning systems make sense of the world, and
operate within it, in profoundly different ways.
The match between capacity for self-complexity
and environment is a key factor for a person's
ability to be successful.
Stages of Cultural Evolution
AGILE

29. The significant
problems we face
today cannot be
solved at the same
level of thinking we
were at when we
created them.
Albert Einstein
@ChrisChanAU

30. Your immunity
protects you from
threats
@ChrisChanAU

31. @ChrisChanAU
YOUR LIMBIC SYSTEM WHEN UNDER THREAT
Prefrontal cortex
• Problem solving
• Decision making
• Creativity
• Insight
• Reason
• Moral decisions
• Impulse control
Limbic system
• Emotions
• “Am I Safe?”
• Threat or reward response
• Instinct, reactive, impulsive
Prefrontal cortex is easily distracted by the limbic system – threat or
reward part of the brain – once it kicks in we find it hard to be creative,
etc. That’s why we can revert to old habits when we’re under stress.

32. @ChrisChanAU
X-RAY: THE IMMUNITY TO CHANGE MAP
Provides a window into our hidden
commitments that hold us captive.
The X-ray makes visible crucial missing piece
in the puzzle why change is so difficult.
“Something you
have, rather
than something
that has you.”
- Robert Kegan
@ChrisChanAU

33. @ChrisChanAU MAKE THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE
OBJECT
Visible
What you can see
Something you have, can
reflect on, take control of or
operate upcon
SUBJECT
Invisible
Lens we use to view the world
Something that has you
@ChrisChanAU

34. @ChrisChanAU
FIVE STEP PLAN TO OVERCOMING YOUR IMMUNITY TO CHANGE
1. Identify your goal
2. What do you do that keeps
you from achieving your
goal?
3. What are your hidden
commitments that keep you
from achieving your goal?
4. Identify underlying
assumptions
5. Test your assumptions

35. @ChrisChanAU
COLUMN 1: IMPROVEMENT GOAL
Guidelines:
• Achieving this ONE BIG GOAL will
not only make a big difference to you
but also to your organization.
• It’s true for you
• It implicates you (you are on the
hook)
Your top priority improvement goalWrite in Column 1
STEP
• There’s room for improvement
• It’s stated in the affirmative
• It’s important to you
• Has a sense of urgency
• This is a goal that you are sincerely and
deeply committed to reaching.

36. 1. Commitment
(Improvement Goal)
2. Doing/Not Doing
(vs #1)
3. Hidden
Competing
Commitments
4. Big Assumptions
To be more comfortable in
having difficult or
uncomfortable
conversations.
This is important to me so
I can be in service of
others so I can provide
feedback, call out
unproductive behaviours,
challenge people’s
thinking, and help them
grow their level of
consciousness.
This is also important so
that the organization can
transform and live the
value of being a great
place to grow.
@ChrisChanAU

37. 1. Commitment
(Improvement Goal)
2. Doing/Not Doing
(vs #1)
3. Hidden
Competing
Commitments
4. Big Assumptions
To bring people on the
journey, not to give the
answers, and to be
comfortable when actions
differ from what I think is
the pathway.
Why?
It’s important to me to be
able to help others grow,
drive culture change and it
will enable me to be a
more effective leader
@ChrisChanAU

38. @ChrisChanAU
COLUMN 2: DOING/NOT DOING
Guidelines:
• Name the behaviours, not just dispositions (not “I’m uncomfortable with conflict”,
but what you DO or DON’T DO as a result)
• It’s clear how these behaviours that get in the way or work against Column 1
commitment
• Don’t worry about why or write what you do (or should do) to accomplish your goal
What you are doing, or not doing, that
works against your Column 1 goalWrite in Column 2
STEP

39. 1. Commitment
(Improvement Goal)
2. Doing/Not Doing
(vs #1)
3. Hidden
Competing
Commitments
4. Big Assumptions
To be more comfortable in
having difficult or
uncomfortable
conversations.
This is important to me so
I can be in service of
others so I can provide
feedback, call out
unproductive behaviours,
challenge people’s
thinking, and help them
grow their level of
consciousness.
This is also important so
that the organization can
transform and live the
value of being a great
place to grow.
• I hesitate/wait.
• I over analyse/mull over
• I don’t ask for support
in situ
• I discuss with a trusted
colleague what I “should
have” done.
• I look for others to lead.
• I do nothing (as time
has passed)
@ChrisChanAU

40. 1. Commitment
(Improvement Goal)
2. Doing/Not Doing
(vs #1)
3. Hidden
Competing
Commitments
4. Big Assumptions
To bring people on the
journey, not to give the
answers, and to be
comfortable when actions
differ from what I think is
the pathway.
Why?
It’s important to me to be
able to help others grow,
drive culture change and it
will enable me to be a
more effective leader
• Finishing others
sentences
• Asking leading questions
• Leading to get an
answer when it may be
better to end coaching
at that point
• Moving too quickly
• Not waiting for the full
answer
• Making people feel like
there is a ‘right’ answer
by not listening to what
they are saying or not
saying
@ChrisChanAU

41. @ChrisChanAU
COLUMN 3: WORRY BOX
Guidelines:
• Shift from rational thought into feelings.
• Imagine doing the opposite of the behaviours in Column 2:
• Really picture yourself in that situation…..what do you feel/think?
• What concerns, doubts, distress, anxieties – even fears – do you experience?
• What is the most uncomfortable or scary feeling that comes up?
Why you are stopping yourself from
achieving what you would like to
achieve
Write in Column 3
Worry Box
STEP

42. 1. Commitment
(Improvement Goal)
2. Doing/Not Doing
(vs #1)
3. Hidden
Competing
Commitments
4. Big Assumptions
To be more comfortable in
having difficult or
uncomfortable
conversations.
This is important to me so
I can be in service of
others so I can provide
feedback, call out
unproductive behaviours,
challenge people’s
thinking, and help them
grow their level of
consciousness.
This is also important so
that the organization can
transform and live the
value of being a great
place to grow.
• I hesitate/wait.
• I over analyse/mull over
• I don’t ask for support
in situ
• I discuss with a trusted
colleague what I “should
have” done.
• I look for others to lead.
• I do nothing (as time
has passed)
Worry box:
• I am not liked
• I’ll look/sound like a
trouble maker
• People will
ignore/distance
themselves from me.
• I will come across as
judgemental
• People will talk
negatively of me
• People will go behind
my back
@ChrisChanAU

43. 1. Commitment
(Improvement Goal)
2. Doing/Not Doing
(vs #1)
3. Hidden
Competing
Commitments
4. Big Assumptions
To bring people on the
journey, not to give the
answers, and to be
comfortable when actions
differ from what I think is
the pathway.
Why?
It’s important to me to be
able to help others grow,
drive culture change and it
will enable me to be a
more effective leader
• Finishing others
sentences
• Asking leading questions
• Leading to get an
answer when it may be
better to end coaching
at that point
• Moving too quickly
• Not waiting for the full
answer
• Making people feel like
there is a ‘right’ answer
by not listening to what
they are saying or not
saying
Worry box:
• I might not be able to
help or be seen as
helping
• No action will happen
• We will fail as a team
• I will waste time (take
too long)
• I wont get to the truth
@ChrisChanAU

44. @ChrisChanAU
COLUMN 3: HIDDEN COMPETING COMMITMENTS
Guidelines:
• Follows from your fear.
• Name the actual fears towards your improvement goal.
• Shows why Column 2 behaviors make good sense.
• You see your immune system & it feels powerful.
• Commitment to self-protection is not noble. E.g. NOT something you are proud of
What commitment you have to prevent
this fear or loss from happening
Write in Column 3
Underneath
Worry Box
STEP

45. @ChrisChanAU
COLUMN 3: HIDDEN COMPETING COMMITMENTS
Examples:
“I worry I’ll look
incompetent”
becomes
“I’m committed to
covering over my
weaknesses and
vulnerabilities”
“I worry I’ll let the
person down”
becomes
“I am committed to
taking everything on
and never
disappointing anyone”
STEP

46. 1. Commitment
(Improvement Goal)
2. Doing/Not Doing
(vs #1)
3. Hidden
Competing
Commitments
4. Big Assumptions
To be more comfortable in
having difficult or
uncomfortable
conversations.
This is important to me so
I can be in service of
others so I can provide
feedback, call out
unproductive behaviours,
challenge people’s
thinking, and help them
grow their level of
consciousness.
This is also important so
that the organization can
transform and live the
value of being a great
place to grow.
• I hesitate/wait.
• I over analyse/mull over
• I don’t ask for support
in situ
• I discuss with a trusted
colleague what I “should
have” done.
• I look for others to lead.
• I do nothing (as time
has passed)
What I am committed to
is…
• Avoiding confrontation &
conflict
• Not risk being good
enough and helpful
• Not rocking the boat
• Not risk being disliked
• Wanting to be liked
ahead of being
transformational
Worry box:
• I am not liked
• I’ll look/sound like a
trouble maker
• People will
ignore/distance
themselves from me.
• I will come across as
judgemental
• People will talk
negatively of me
• People will go behind
my back
@ChrisChanAU

47. 1. Commitment
(Improvement Goal)
2. Doing/Not Doing
(vs #1)
3. Hidden
Competing
Commitments
4. Big Assumptions
To bring people on the
journey, not to give the
answers, and to be
comfortable when actions
differ from what I think is
the pathway.
Why?
It’s important to me to be
able to help others grow,
drive culture change and it
will enable me to be a
more effective leader
• Finishing others
sentences
• Asking leading questions
• Leading to get an
answer when it may be
better to end coaching
at that point
• Moving too quickly
• Not waiting for the full
answer
• Making people feel like
there is a ‘right’ answer
by not listening to what
they are saying or not
saying
What I am committed to
is…
• Being right
• Having my voice heard
• Contributing to create
value
• Being the one with the
idea
• Getting in first
• Proving my worth
• Intent is that I’m not
afraid to speak up
Worry box:
• I might not be able to
help or be seen as
helping
• No action will happen
• We will fail as a team
• I will waste time (take
too long)
• I wont get to the truth
@ChrisChanAU

48. @ChrisChanAU
THIS REVEALS YOUR HIDDEN COMPETING COMMITMENTS!
Immunity to change appears as resistance
to a different way of doing and being. This
brings about counter-commitments that
are driven by the desire to maintain the
status quo. The counter-commitment is
generally backed by an assumption.
The competing commitment gets in the
way of the original commitment, but the
person is unaware of the competing
commitment.
Our competing
commitment
has a positive
intention which
is ultimately to
protect us. Its
our immunity in
action!
@ChrisChanAU

49. one foot
on the GAS
and one foot on the BRAKE!
@ChrisChanAU
Column 1
Column 2

50. @ChrisChanAU
COLUMN 4: THE BIG ASSUMPTION
Guidelines:
• Makes Column 3 absolutely necessary. What anchors you to your hidden commitments?
• What dangers will you foresee if you let go of your competing commitments?
• Has a big-time bad conclusion for you
• Ask what negative impacts to your SCARF (Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relationships,
Fairness)?
• Note: these tend to typically be invisible to you (subject not object)
What assumptions must I be making that
would keep me captive of (or give rise
to) my Column 3 commitment
Write in Column 4
STEP

51. @ChrisChanAU
COLUMN 4: THE BIG ASSUMPTION
• If [the opposite of Column 3 commitment] Then [Big Time Bad
thing would happen]
• I assume that
• I assume that if , then
• I assume that if I don’t , then
STEP

52. 1. Commitment
(Improvement Goal)
2. Doing/Not Doing
(vs #1)
3. Hidden
Competing
Commitments
4. Big Assumptions
To be more comfortable in
having difficult or
uncomfortable
conversations.
This is important to me so
I can be in service of
others so I can provide
feedback, call out
unproductive behaviours,
challenge people’s
thinking, and help them
grow their level of
consciousness.
This is also important so
that the organization can
transform and live the
value of being a great
place to grow.
• I hesitate/wait.
• I over analyse/mull over
• I don’t ask for support
in situ
• I discuss with a trusted
colleague what I “should
have” done.
• I look for others to lead.
• I do nothing (as time
has passed)
What I am committed to
is…
• Avoiding confrontation &
conflict
• Not risk being good
enough and helpful
• Not rocking the boat
• Not risk being disliked
• Wanting to be liked
ahead of being
transformational
I assume that if I am not
liked people will not find
me valuable and I will not
have a seat at the table
(be left out) or have input
(lonely child syndrome).
I assume that if I am seen
as confrontational I will
get hurt (blame).
I assume that if I make a
big mistake I will not be
able to recover from it.
Worry box:
• I am not liked
• I’ll look/sound like a
trouble maker
• People will
ignore/distance
themselves from me.
• I will come across as
judgemental
• People will talk
negatively of me
• People will go behind
my back
@ChrisChanAU

53. 1. Commitment
(Improvement Goal)
2. Doing/Not Doing
(vs #1)
3. Hidden
Competing
Commitments
4. Big Assumptions
To bring people on the
journey, not to give the
answers, and to be
comfortable when actions
differ from what I think is
the pathway.
Why?
It’s important to me to be
able to help others grow,
drive culture change and it
will enable me to be a
more effective leader
• Finishing others
sentences
• Asking leading questions
• Leading to get an
answer when it may be
better to end coaching
at that point
• Moving too quickly
• Not waiting for the full
answer
• Making people feel like
there is a ‘right’ answer
by not listening to what
they are saying or not
saying
What I am committed to
is…
• Being right
• Having my voice heard
• Contributing to create
value
• Being the one with the
idea
• Getting in first
• Proving my worth
• Intent is that I’m not
afraid to speak up
I assume I will let people
down if I don’t
demonstrate my
knowledge, or won’t live
up to expectations.
I assume I have a desire
to be the advisor/SME/ to
be respected
I assume I have to sustain
the pedestal, pressure to
perform
Worry box:
• I might not be able to
help or be seen as
helping
• No action will happen
• We will fail as a team
• I will waste time (take
too long)
• I wont get to the truth
@ChrisChanAU

54. @ChrisChanAU
BIG ASSUMPTIONS ARE THE ROOT OF YOUR BEHAVIOURS
• Big assumptions are the core
beliefs and internalized truths we
hold about how the world works,
how we work, and how people
respond to us.
• When we treat an assumption
as if it were the absolute truth,
we allow it to rule our actions
and shape everything we see.
• We don’t consider or explore
possibilities.

56. @ChrisChanAU
TEST THE BIG ASSUMPTIONS
A good test conforms to SMART criteria:
S Safe
M Modest
A Actionable in the near term
R Take a research stance (not a self-improvement stance)
T Test of your big assumption to collect data
STEP
The purpose of each test you run is to see what happens when
you intentionally alter your usual conduct and then reflect
upon the meaning of the results for your big assumption.

57. @ChrisChanAU
OVERCOMING YOUR IMMUNITY TO CHANGE
Chose one Big Assumption you want to explore:
Step 1: Observe the big assumption in action
Step 2: Write the biography of your big assumption
Step 3: Design a first test of your big assumption
Step 4: Examine the results of your first test
Step 5: Develop / run / evaluate further tests
Step 6: Consolidate your learning
UNCONSCIOUSLY
“IMMUNE”
CONSCIOUSLY
“IMMUNE”
CONSCIOUSLY
“RELEASED”
UNCONSCIOUSLY
“RELEASED”
Immunity to Change, Kegan & Lahey

58. Leap from
knowing
and doing
@ChrisChanAU
Start breaking down your immunity to change …

59. PERSONAL GROWTH IS THE KEY TO SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
TRANSFORMATION & CULTURE CHANGE
@ChrisChanAU

60. @ChrisChanAU
REFERENCES
Lisa Lahey
Robert Kegan

61. THANK YOU
Presented by Chris Chan
e: chris.chan2@anz.com
chris@chrischan.com.au
@ChrisChanAU
w: http://chrischan.com.au