THE REAL REASON PEOPLE

WON’T CHNAGE
SUMMARY

ANAM MAJID
01-395192-002
The article describes and summarize about the personal immunity of people that resist them from
being changed. The real reason people won’t change is not due to lack of skill and deep
commitment within them but it is due to hidden competing commitment followed by big
assumptions. For some, the need is confidence-building, for others it’s behavior change or skill
development.

Sometimes, no matter how hard a person tries, their progress remains inexplicably stalled. The
situation can be as frustrating to bosses, colleagues, and family members as it is to the individual.
A “competing commitment” to explain what they term “personal immunity to change”.
Competing commitments are long held belief that has become an integral part of their make up
so that it is difficult to change. When these beliefs are uncovered, change is possible.

It is not an easy task to uncover the hidden commitment but author has suggested to go through
the set of questions. They have developed 3 stage processes to help organizations to figure out
what’s getting on way to change?

1. Manager guides employees to uncover competing commitments through the set of questions.

2. Employees examine these commitments to determine underlying assumptions.

3. Start the process of changing behavior. The author presents the example of John who is a
talented manager at a software company.

While it makes it clearer that true and sustained behavior change is much harder than how many
might think it is, it also shows a more reliable path for driving effective behavior change: Rather
than try to modify existing behaviors by tackling them head-on, we need to adopt a deeper and
more indirect approach.

We need to first identify the hidden commitments that drive them, then uncover the big
assumptions on which they are based, and finally design safe, modest experiments that can help
us test those assumptions and reduce them from absolute truths to more refined statements that
only hold true in specific circumstances. Only then, can we let go of some of our existing hidden
commitments and drive sustainable, long-lasting change.
Competing commitments’ should not be seen as a weakness but some form of self-protection
which is a normal form of human instinct. The reasons people are protecting themselves usually
lie in some deeply-rooted beliefs about themselves and the world around them.

These ‘competing commitments’ usually arise from some big assumptions we have made about
the world. People rarely realize they hold assumptions because they accept them as reality. So
it’s necessary to uncover our hidden commitment and big assumptions that has been distance us
away from change.

Competing commitments are the reason why you procrastinate or try and try and try and seem to
be getting nowhere. They keep the brakes on while you attempt accelerating.

As these competing commitments are specific to you, the strategies and tactics you use to work
through them does not have a one-size fits all approach. That’s what makes this approach as
effective as it is personalized.

The main point of testing your assumptions is NOT to prove your assumption wrong but rather to
gather data. This resembles the approach of cognitive behavior therapy: trying out a new
behavior and analyzing whether it serves you or is counterproductive.

Our failings to take action are not some inherent weakness in our character. They are clues that
we have powerful competing commitments at work