– Bernie Kelly –
Your leadership team was designed for the last wave… Can you look deeper on what it takes to reset for the next wave?
While most leadership teams are looking elsewhere, the aware teams realise they may be the biggest barrier to the organisation successfully riding the next wave.
That’s right! Your biggest barrier to your current strategy is likely to be your leadership team’s internal resistance to the transformation you all say is necessary.
It is less sinister plot, and more human psychology.
The immune system of a leadership team naturally rises out of the personal strengths, systems, procedures, and ways of working you have built up for efficiency and scalability on the last wave.
When in periods of disruption, the organisation’s immune system can become hyperactive…And when this happens, individually and collectively, we can’t tell the difference between an innovative opportunity and a perceived threat.
This is why when you push for disruptive innovation inside your company, you too often hit a brick wall…
Robert Keegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey coined the term ‘Immunity to Change’ to explain why there are changes that, on the surface it appears we support, but that we do not follow through. Immunity to change is an inability to change because of deep-rooted assumptions and conflicting commitments. These may be so entrenched that they are unconscious.
(Source: Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization (Leadership for the Common Good), Robert Keegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey, 2009 )
I have written about this previously here.
And other articles exploring this area here and here.
Identifying areas where we may have our own immunity to change, particularly on paths we say really matter to us, is an active focus in the Chief of Transformation Belong+ community. We use every 100 Day cycle in our community of Executive leaders to celebrate progress towards our transformational goals AND also surface those areas that we don’t seem to get around to – that give us hints to areas we may have an Immunity to Change ourselves.
Seeing this as part of the human condition means we are less judgmental of others and ourselves.
Seeing the barriers that we were previously unconscious of is the start of a shift within us.
Practising this raising of awareness routinely, increases our adaption aligned with our path. It also allows you to challenge and support your leadership team, who was designed for the last wave to reset for the next wave.
Leading Disruption with Grace.
