Skip to main content

The Real Reason People Won’t Change

13
Jun 2011

I really enjoyed a Harvard Business review article on the “competing commitment” between what people say they want/ believe in and their actions. Often there are untrue limiting assumptions which they are living believing them to be true.
For example one board member claimed he wanted to aggressively grow the business, yet his actions kept his department’ profits and sales strong but static for 3 years. In reality he wanted to keep the high quality relationships with his clients. He feared accelerated, aggressive growth with make his into a volume “stack them high and sell them cheap” business. He didn’t want to be associated with that.

So identify with your coach what are your big assumptions which make your rhetoric and reality conflict. Then take action and check if the assumptions are really true. Replace them with true and liberating assumptions (see the “time to think” techniques).

Refers to HBR article Nov 2001 Kegan and Lahey

Good luck. Jonathan Perks

Other Articles

August 15, 2011
On my recent summer holiday I was relaxing and reading “Too Big to Fail” the account of the 2008 failure of the banking system. It reminded me of experiences I have had with organisations…
2021 – Dawn of Hope for A Better Year (Part 1)
January 04, 2021
So having learnt some very tough communal and personal life lessons in 2020, what can we look forward to in 2021? Next Normal. It will be the new “next normal”, we wont go back to our old…
How can you develop your LQ – your legacy, and Stewardship in leaving things better than you found them in your work and your job?
May 05, 2023
Have you ever thought about the legacy you’ll leave behind when you leave your job or your work? It’s a question that we don’t often think about, but it’s an important one to…