Write the biography of your big assumption
Trace when and how the assumption first took hold, and ask whether it still fits the person you are now.
Warum es wirkt
Kegan and Lahey invite people to become "biographers" of their big assumptions: how and when the assumption first took hold, how long it has been around, and its turning points. They report that this usually leads to earlier life experiences, before the current job and relationships, and that seeing the assumption was formed for another time and place makes its foundations look less solid. The history does not disprove the assumption; it loosens its claim to be simply how things are.
So gehst du vor
- Write the assumption at the top of a page.
- Answer: "When do I first remember believing this? What was happening in my life then?"
- Note two or three turning points — times it was reinforced, or times it was briefly challenged.
- Finish with: "What was this assumption protecting me from then, and is my situation now the same?"
Evidenz
"Explore the history" is step 3 of the five-step process in Kegan and Lahey’s 2001 HBR article, which describes examples such as a CEO who recognized she was applying a self-protective stance formed during a difficult divorce years earlier. The evidence is the authors’ case experience; no study has tested this step on its own. (anecdotal)
Tracing an assumption back can bring up painful early memories. The aim is perspective, not reliving them; if it opens something heavy, slow down and get support.
Quellen
Häufiger Fehler
Treating the origin story as proof the assumption is false, or as the end of the work. Understanding where it came from frees you to question it; the testing still has to happen.
Übe das mit IX Coach
Weitere Übungen für The Immunity to Change Process, Step by Step
- Turn a complaint into the commitment underneath it
Use what you keep complaining about to find what you actually care about changing.
- Choose your "one big thing" with input from others
Pick a single improvement goal that matters to you, involves you, and that people who know you agree would make a real difference.
- List what you do instead, without trying to fix it
Write down, specifically and honestly, what you do and do not do that works against your goal — and resist resolving to stop.
- Fill the worry box: imagine doing the opposite
Picture yourself doing the opposite of what you listed and write down the discomfort, worry or fear that comes up.
- Rewrite the worry as what you are committed to preventing
Turn each worry into a commitment — "I am committed to not…" — so you can see what your behavior is protecting.
- Watch your big assumption at work before you test it
For a week or two, only notice when the assumption steers you and look for evidence that it is not always true.
- Read what your test actually showed
After a test of your big assumption, separate what happened from what you made of it, then decide what it tells you and what to test next.
- Map a team’s collective immunity to change
When a group sincerely wants a change and still does not make it, map the shared commitment and assumption holding it in place.
Verwandte Konzepte
- Kegans Subjekt-Objekt-Theorie, praktisch erklärt
Vom Beherrschtwerden durch die eigenen Annahmen zur Fähigkeit, sie zu untersuchen
- Selbst-Autorschaft: Vom sozialisierten zum selbst-autorisierten Verstand
Kegans Stufen, Subjekt-Objekt-Bewegungen und das Autorisieren deines eigenen Lebens
- Adaptive Führung, praktisch gemacht
Adaptive Herausforderungen von technischen Problemen unterscheiden — und entsprechend führen
- Terri O’Fallon’s STAGES Model, Made Practical
Twelve stages built from three repeating questions, and how to work with the one you are in