Immunity To Change: How To Overcome It And Unlock The Potential In Yourself And Your Organization (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
This was read as part of a business school course on behavioral challenges in the work environment.I think that it is extremely useful for people to find ways to step outside of their work-selves to consider their organizations and themselves from a higher and more strategic place. When you realize that things need to change - and there are always things that need to change, it can be useful when given a way to think about structuring the research into areas of improvement as well as the methodology for reaching goals for those changes.The book gives an interesting and systematic way of looking at determining the most necessary areas for improvement as well as ways to improve it. What I got from the book, I could have likely understood from the original article on the framework. While the book itself had some interesting things to think about, I didn't gain as much from the numerous self-touting use cases of how the authors' methodologies have been successful. Some of it felt like overkill.What I found most interesting about the book was a note about an obvious, but often overlooked notion. While you think that uncovering your deepest and darkest bad patterns may feel as if you're laying your soul open for all to see, whatever it is that is the behavior most needing change is likely something that's overtly obvious to those you'd share it with. Letting those around you know what it is you're working on can then help to create a self-fulfilling prophecy of success, if you're willing to put in the work. A reviewer on Amazon described this book well: Immunity to Change is a challenging analysis of how our well-developed methods of processing information and experience become barriers that hinder our attempts to achieve adaptive change. The first section of the book describes the theory and can be pretty tough going. The second applies the theory to case studies of organization change. The last is a primer on how to detect and overcome change immunity in your own organization.What I liked about this book was that it always felt personal. I could see how my friends, colleagues and especially myself have created our own immunities to make important changes in our behaviors. It also made me realize why so many training programs don't deliver on the promise of new behaviors. As the authors pointed out, the changes that we or our organizations need to take are often complex, requiring an adaptive approach to change. Instead, we treat the change as if it's a technical problem through training, setting goals and simply 'keeping track'. Significant change requires deep reflection about our own behaviors and understanding how we create these immunities to protect us from a perceived danger. Until we get to a deep understanding of how our immunities reinforce the status quo we will not develop either individually or organizationally.
What do You think about Immunity To Change: How To Overcome It And Unlock The Potential In Yourself And Your Organization (2009)?
While a bit dense, I have found this book incredibly impactful. I also took part of the EdX MooC.
—brii
I'm addressing one of my own and difficult immunities to change.
—shir24
Heard about this at the COABE conference.
—hawke68
Well researched, and powerful in parts.
—blondie101
