As adult learning experts, Kegan and Lahey are intrigued by why adults don't adapt to conditions that are necessary or even life enhancing. Situations that don't seems rational include the smoker who continues to smoke despite health issues, or the heart patient that refuses to change their lifestyle, or why people are so unsuccessful in changing their diet permanently?
The answer, they conclude, is that change is difficult, especially for adults who have invested many years in developing coping behaviors and underlying beliefs that actually compete with the new behavior that is needed. In Immunity to Change Kegan and Lahey discuss the steps necessary for adults individual and teams in organizations to discover what hidden commitments keep them locked in their habitual ways of thinking and behaving, keeping them immune to change.
Successful adaptation or change for adults (individuals and whole teams) begins with discovering the hidden or competing commitments and the set of beliefs (mindset) that keeps those behaviors strongly locked in place. Only by changing the mindset can individuals or teams make progress in adapting new behaviors.
This book is important to independent school audiences because it is a detailed and pragmatic companion work to Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck and because of the many, many schools seeking to achieve growth and adaptive change in their cultures.
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