We all say that we desire change yet, it seems so difficult for it to actually occur. In this webinar, learn more about the barriers to change that keep us from moving forward in our personal, professional and organizational lives.

1. Barriers to Change
Understanding Roadblocks to Progress in Organizations
and Communities
Froswa' Booker-Drew
November 6, 2013
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Advising nonprofits in:
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4. Today’s Speakers
Froswa' Booker-Drew
Consultant
Soulstice Consultancy
Jamie Maloney
Community Developer, 4Good
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Founding Director of Nonprofit Webinars and Host:
Sam Frank, Synthesis Partnership
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5. Barriers to Change:
Understanding Roadblocks to
Progress in Organizations and
Communities
Froswa’ Booker-Drew

6. Froswa’ Booker-Drew
• Director for International NGO
• Leadership and Change PhD student at
Antioch University
• Author of Rules of Engagement: Building
Relationships that Last
• Consultant to nonprofit organizations around
the US

7. What is Change?

8. Leaders and Change
• “…twenty-first-century leaders
must find a more effective way
to engage the emotional lives of
their organizations and their
leadership teams.”
Kegan, Robert; Lahey, Lisa Laskow (2009-02-15). Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in
Yourself and Your Organization (Leadership for the Common Good) Harvard Business Review Press.

9. Reflection Moment
Think about those areas in which change hasn’t
occurred and is creating dysfunction in our
organizations and communities especially
around our own challenges as individuals in this
work.

10. Why is Change Difficult?
“The problem is the inability to close the gap
between what we genuinely, even passionately,
want and what we are actually able to do.
Closing this gap is a central learning problem of
the twenty-first century.”
Kegan, Robert; Lahey, Lisa Laskow (2009-02-15). Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the
Potential in Yourself and Your Organization (Leadership for the Common Good) Harvard Business Review
Press.

11. Making Meaning
Every day, we make meaning of the things we
experience. Often, our meanings create
challenges for creating change.
In our organizations and in our communities,
what are some ideas that mean different things
to different people and cause conflict?

12. On the Balcony vs. on the Dance Floor
“When you move back and forth
between balcony and dance floor, you
can continually assess what is
happening in your organization and
take corrective midcourse action.”
Heifetz, Ronald A.; Linsky, Marty; Grashow, Alexander (2009-05-18). The Practice of
Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World
(p. 8). Harvard Business Review Press.

13. Our Lens is Important
•
•
•
•
Structural
Human Relations
Symbolic
Political
From “Reframing Organizations: The Artistry of Leadership”

14. Using the Wrong Lens
• “….people begin analyzing problems by
personalizing them.”
Heifetz, Ronald A.; Linsky, Marty; Grashow, Alexander (2009-05-18). The Practice
of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the
World (p. 8). Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.

15. Technical versus Adaptive Challenge
• Technical challenges are those that require a
solution that involves a skill.
• Adaptive challenges are those that skills can
not change and require a change in ourselves
and the way we view situations.
• Applying a technical solution to an adaptive
challenge does not solve a problem. Often,
our self-identity is a part of the adaptive
challenge.

16. Technical Versus Adaptive Challenges
As a group, think of times we see technical
solutions being used instead of adaptive
ones in the workplace? In our communities?

17. Adaptive Challenges
• “Adaptive challenges can only be addressed
through changes in people’s priorities, beliefs,
habits, and loyalties.”
Heifetz, Ronald A.; Linsky, Marty; Grashow, Alexander (2009-05-18). The Practice of Adaptive
Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World (p. 20). Harvard
Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.

18. Change is About Development
• True change in our communities and in
ourselves is about development and not
increasing our knowledge or behavior.
Coping and dealing only adds “new skills or
widen(s) our repertoire of responses.” We are
the same person who hasn’t changed.
Kegan, Robert; Lahey, Lisa Laskow (2009-02-15). Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the
Potential in Yourself and Your Organization (Leadership for the Common Good) Harvard Business Review.

19. Adults Can Change!
Adults have different plateaus in mental
complexity.
This is demonstrated in:
a.
b.
c.
The socialized mind
The self-authoring mind
The self-transforming mind

20. The Socialized Mind
•
•
•
•
Shaped by definitions and expectations of
our environment
I am strongly influenced by what I think
people want to hear
Sensitive to and influenced by what it picks
up
May read more into what is being received
than what actually was intended

21. Self Authoring Mind
•
•
•
Creates a filter for what it allows to come
through
Places priority on information that is sought
to accomplish plan
If I didn’t ask for the information and it is not
relevant to me, it can’t get through my filter.

22. Self Transforming Mind
•
•
•
Can look at a situation and also look
through the situation
Involves systems thinking—can see multiple
variables at work
Has the ability to see the positive and
negative of a situation at the same time

23. Challenges for Leaders Today
• “….data suggests that the gap between what
we now expect of people’s minds (including
our own minds) and what our minds are
actually like is quite large. We expect most
workers to be self-authoring, but most are
not. We expect most leaders to be more
complex than self-authoring, and very few
are.” What does this mean for our lives? Our
organizations? Communities?
Kegan, Robert; Lahey, Lisa Laskow (2009-02-15). Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the
Potential in Yourself and Your Organization (Leadership for the Common Good) (Kindle Locations 622-624).
Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.

24. What is the Immunity to Change Process?
• Improvement Goal
• Worry Box--If you do what you desire, what
worries you about making it happen?
• Competing Commitment—What is getting in
the way of the goal being accomplished?
• Big Assumptions—If you make the change,
what do you assume will happen that isn’t
positive?

25. Self-Reflection as a part of Change
“Self-reflection is a central aspect of any
organizational work.” Self-reflection is not only
important in organizations but as leaders, we
must take time to reflect on who we are and
those things that impact us.
Your narrative about yourself could contribute to
your inability to create change.
•
Kegan, Robert; Lahey, Lisa Laskow (2009-02-15). Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the
Potential in Yourself and Your Organization (Leadership for the Common Good) .Harvard Business Review
Press.

26. Steps to Becoming an Adaptive Leader
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Engage Above and Below the Neck
Connect to Purpose
Listen to the Song Beneath the Words
Diagnose the Political Landscape
Uncover Values Driving Behavior
Acknowledge Loyalties
Name the Losses at Risk

27. Steps in Becoming an Adaptive Leader
• Name the Elephants in the Room
• Share Responsibility for the Organization’s or
Community’s Future
• Protect and Engage the Voices of Dissent
• Know your many identities
• Know Your Triggers
• Grow Your Network
•
Heifetz, Ronald A.; Linsky, Marty; Grashow, Alexander (2009-05-18). The
Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your
Organization and the World . Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.

28. Contact Information
Froswa’ Booker-Drew
soulsticeceo@gmail.com
Rules of Engagement: Making Connections
Last
• For information on the book, visit
www.austinbrotherspublishing.com