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.

Pourquoi ça marche

Kegan and Lahey argue that teams, departments and whole organizations can hold the same structure as a person: a shared goal, shared behaviors that undermine it, and a shared commitment protecting something the group values. In their HBR example a leadership team that had agreed a growth plan discovered it was also committed to preserving its noncompetitive, collaborative spirit, and assumed the plan would destroy it. Seeing both commitments let the group work on the real conflict rather than on its stated excuses.

Comment faire

1. Have members work through an individual map first, as the 2009 book advises, so they know the process from the inside.
2. Agree as a group on one collective improvement goal everyone genuinely holds.
3. List what the group does and does not do that works against it — group behaviors, not one person’s.
4. Ask together: "Can we name even the vaguest fear about what would happen if we really pursued this?" Turn the shared worry into a shared commitment, then name the assumption behind it.
5. Choose one small, safe group test of the assumption and agree how you will review it.

Données probantes

The "Getting Groups to Change" section of Kegan and Lahey’s 2001 HBR article describes the video-production leadership team example, and Reams’s report on the 2009 book describes its chapters on group-wide and collective immunity, including the advice to do individual maps first. The support is case examples from the authors’ consulting and from practitioners. (anecdotal)

Group work adds risk: people may not feel safe naming fears in front of colleagues or a boss. Reams (2009) notes the need for enough safety; without it the map stays at the level of polite excuses.

Sources

• Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2001). The Real Reason People Won’t Change. Harvard Business Review, 79(10), 84–92.
• Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2009). Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization. Boston: Harvard Business Press.
• Reams, J. (2009). Immunity to Change: A Report from the Field. Integral Review, 5(1).

Erreur fréquente

Using the group map to point at one member as the obstacle. A collective immunity belongs to the group; if it turns into blame, it has become a different conversation.