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.
Why it works
In Immunity to Change (2009) the first column holds "one big thing": a single improvement goal, identified with feedback from others. Kegan and Lahey stress that if the goal is not important enough, and not about a change in you, the map uncovers a protective system that does not matter and the exercise is wasted. Asking others both checks that the goal is worth the effort and catches improvements you cannot see from inside.
How to do it
- List two or three changes you would genuinely like to make in yourself — not a project, a way you behave.
- Ask two or three people who see you regularly: "If I got better at this, would it make a real difference?" and "Is there something else you would put first?"
- Choose one goal that is important to you, that is about you rather than others, and where you can see room to improve.
- Write it as a single sentence beginning "I am committed to getting better at…"
Evidence
The "one big thing", chosen with feedback from others, is how Immunity to Change (2009) frames the first column, as summarized chapter by chapter in Reams’s 2009 report. In the first quantitative study of immunity-to-change coaching, 45 supervisors working on leadership development goals reported significantly more progress than 25 comparison supervisors from the same company, and most said they would use the four-column map again. (observational)
The 2016 study was not randomized and measured self-reported progress, so it shows coached people felt they moved more, not that the goal-choosing step caused it.
Sources
- 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).
- Markus, I. (2016). Efficacy of Immunity-to-Change Coaching for Leadership Development. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 52(2), 215–230.
Common mistake
Choosing a goal you think you should have, or one that is really a task. If nothing in you resists it, the map will come out empty.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Related concepts
- Kegan’s Subject-Object Theory, Made Practical
Moving from being run by your assumptions to being able to examine them
- Self-Authorship: Moving From the Socialized to the Self-Authored Mind
Kegan’s stages, subject-object moves, and authoring your own life
- Adaptive Leadership, Made Practical
Distinguishing adaptive challenges from technical problems — and leading accordingly
- 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
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