African American coachee working with an Immunity To Change -trained coach

The Change Immunity Model: Coaching Clients Through Resistance

October 15, 2025

Posted by Alisa Sukdhoe

In the ever-evolving world of professional development, individuals and organisations continually seek ways to adapt, improve, and grow. Yet, despite their best intentions and efforts, many professionals find themselves caught in a cycle of resistance and career stagnation. The Immunity to Change model, developed by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey, provides a powerful framework for understanding the hidden barriers that often impede personal and professional growth. In this blog post, we will explore the Immunity to Change model and delve into the crucial role coaches play in helping professionals break through these barriers.

Understanding the Immunity to Change Model

The Immunity to Change model was introduced in the early 2000s by Kegan and Lahey, both of whom are prominent Harvard University professors and researchers in the field of adult development and psychology. The primary source that introduced and detailed the Immunity to Change model is the book "Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization," published in 2009. The book provides a comprehensive explanation of the model and its application in personal and organisational development. The model gained significant traction in the field of leadership development and coaching. Many leadership development programs and coaches have incorporated an Immunity to Change map or framework into their practices to help individuals and organisations achieve personal and professional growth.

The Immunity to Change (ITC) model is rooted in the idea that change is not only about adopting new behaviours or habits but also about overcoming the deeply ingrained mental and emotional barriers that prevent us from doing so. These barriers, often referred to as "immunity," are the protective mechanisms our minds have developed to keep us safe and comfortable.

Why the Immunity to Change Model Matters in Leadership and Career Coaching

For leadership coaches, this model provides a lens to understand why capable leaders often repeat the same ineffective patterns—like over-controlling, avoiding conflict, or neglecting self-care—even after feedback or training.

For career coaches, the model helps uncover the deeper fears that hold professionals back from pursuing promotions, career pivots, or self-advocacy. By exploring these “immunity systems,” coaches can help clients move from intellectual understanding to real behavioural transformation.

Kegan and Lahey’s approach fits naturally within the evidence-based coaching tradition, aligning with adult development theory, emotional regulation, and mindset work. It also supports sustainable change—critical for both leadership performance and career progression.

Here are the core principles of the ITC model:

Hidden Commitments: At the heart of the Immunity to Change model are our hidden commitments, the subconscious beliefs and fears that hold us back. These commitments often conflict with our stated goals and desires, creating an inner resistance to change.
Competing Commitments: Hidden commitments are often in conflict with our stated goals. In this dynamic, our hidden commitments act as counterweights, making it challenging to change even when we genuinely want to.
Big Assumptions: Our hidden commitments are based on deeply held assumptions about the world and our place in it. These assumptions shape our beliefs and behaviour, often without our conscious awareness.
Tests and Experiments: The ITC model encourages professionals to design and conduct immunity to change assessments and experiments to challenge and revise their hidden commitments and big assumptions. Coaches play a pivotal role in guiding individuals through this process.

The Role of Coaches in the Immunity to Change Model

Coaches are integral in helping professionals navigate the Immunity to Change model and break free from their self-imposed limitations. Here's a closer look at the actions coaches take to assist individuals in their personal and professional growth:

Creating a Safe Space: Coaches provide a non-judgmental, confidential, and supportive environment where professionals can openly explore their hidden commitments, fears, and assumptions. This safe space encourages self-reflection and vulnerability.
Uncovering Hidden Commitments: Coaches assist individuals in identifying their hidden commitments and understanding how these commitments are impeding their progress. This often involves deep self-inquiry, reflection, and dialogue.
Challenging Assumptions: Coaches help professionals question their big assumptions by guiding them through a structured process of designing experiments and tests that challenge these long-held beliefs. This process encourages individuals to confront their fears and assumptions head-on.
Building Self-Awareness: Coaches support their clients in developing a greater level of self-awareness about their own thinking patterns, biases, and mental barriers. This self-awareness is a critical step toward personal growth and change.
Providing Accountability: Coaches hold professionals accountable for the actions they commit to taking as a result of their experiments. This accountability ensures that individuals follow through with their plans and continue to challenge their immunity to change.
Encouraging Iteration: The process of overcoming immunity to change is not linear. Coaches help individuals iterate on their experiments and make adjustments as they learn more about their hidden commitments and assumptions. This adaptive approach is key to sustainable change.

What the Immunity to Change Model Sounds Like in Practice

While the Immunity to Change model offers a structured map for transformation, its impact depends on the quality of conversation between coach and coachee. When used skillfully, the model shapes a dialogue that is both compassionate and deeply revealing. Coaches don’t diagnose or advise; they inquire, notice, and invite reflection—helping the client uncover the beliefs beneath their behaviours.

Example: What It Sounds Like in the Flow of Coaching

Let’s imagine a leadership coaching session with a senior manager who says:

“I really want to delegate more, but I end up doing everything myself because it’s just faster.”

Rather than jumping to time-management solutions, the coach might guide the conversation through the ITC layers:

Coach: “You’ve said you want to delegate more, but you often end up taking things back. What do you think might be happening there?”

Coachee: “I guess I don’t fully trust that others will do it the way I need it done.”

Coach: “That makes sense. What feels at risk if something isn’t done to your standard?”

Coachee: “If something goes wrong, I’ll look like I can’t manage my team properly.”

Coach: “So, part of you might be protecting your credibility by keeping control?”

Coachee: “Yes—exactly. I can see that. I say I want to delegate, but I’m also committed to protecting my reputation.”

Here, the hidden commitment (“protecting my reputation”) and big assumption (“if I don’t control everything, I’ll look incompetent”) have surfaced naturally through inquiry. The coach then supports experimentation:

Coach: “What’s one small way you could test that belief—perhaps by delegating a low-risk task and observing what happens?”

This dialogue illustrates how a coach using the ITC model gently uncovers contradictions between a client’s stated goal and their subconscious self-protection system—without judgment or pressure.

The Questioning Style

When working with the Immunity to Change model, effective questions are:

Exploratory, not evaluative – “What might that behaviour be protecting you from?”
Curious about contradiction – “You say you want X, but you often do Y—what’s happening there?”
Emotionally attuned – “What fears or discomforts show up when you imagine doing it differently?”
Assumption-testing – “What would it mean if that assumption weren’t true?”
Experiment-oriented – “What’s one small step you could take to test that idea safely?”

The tone is collaborative and reflective, not interrogative. Coaches aim to help the coachee think about their thinking—to “see their system in action.”

What to Listen For as a Coach

In the flow of conversation, coaches should listen for:

Language of protection: “I just can’t risk…”, “I’d lose control…”, “People might think…”
Conflicting intentions: When a client describes wanting one thing but consistently doing another.
Emotional spikes: Hesitation, defensiveness, or strong emotion when discussing change often signal a hidden commitment.
Core identity themes: Words that reveal what the client values most—competence, belonging, control, approval, etc.
Evidence of new insight: Shifts from blame to ownership, or “I hadn’t realised that before.”

Listening with these cues in mind helps coaches track where the client’s immunity system is most active—and where the next experiment might unlock growth.

Integrating ITC with Other Evidence-Based Coaching Models

The Immunity to Change model can be integrated with other well-known frameworks to enhance coaching depth:

GROW Model: Use ITC insights during the “Reality” and “Options” phases to explore what’s really blocking progress.
Cognitive Behavioural Coaching (CBC): Align “big assumptions” with cognitive distortions and reframe unhelpful thinking patterns.
Adult Development Theory: Link immunity to the client’s developmental stage—particularly in transitioning from socialised to self-authoring mindsets.
Systemic Coaching: Apply ITC to uncover team or cultural patterns that reinforce organisational “immunity systems.”

By integrating these approaches, leadership coaches and career coaches can deepen client insight and increase behavioural sustainability.

Practical Steps for Coaches Using the Immunity to Change Model

While the Immunity to Change model offers a robust theoretical framework, its true power emerges through application. For leadership coaches and career coaches, translating the model into practical, structured coaching conversations is key to creating measurable progress. By guiding clients through each stage—from surfacing competing commitments to testing new behaviours—coaches help turn insight into action. The following steps outline how to effectively integrate the ITC model into your coaching practice to support deep, lasting transformation for individuals and teams.

Start with a Compelling Goal: Ensure the coachee’s goal is meaningful and within their sphere of influence.
Identify Counterproductive Behaviours: Observe what the client does that undermines their stated goal.
Explore Competing Commitments: Use reflective inquiry to surface subconscious “protection systems.”
Test Big Assumptions: Co-design small, low-risk experiments to challenge these assumptions.
Reflect and Reinforce Learning: Use post-experiment reflections to anchor new mindsets and behaviours.

Pro Tip: Encourage clients to keep a Change Journal—a structured record of reflections and learning from their experiments. This becomes a valuable longitudinal dataset for career and leadership growth.

Key Takeaways for Coaches

Applying the Immunity to Change model in leadership coaching and career coaching requires both technical understanding and coaching artistry. Beyond frameworks and tools, the real value lies in how coaches hold space for reflection, experimentation, and growth. The following key takeaways distil the essential principles for coaches who want to embed the ITC model effectively into their practice—ensuring that insight leads to meaningful, sustained change for their clients.

Go beneath the goal. Change at the level of mindset, not just behaviour.
Design experiments, not prescriptions. Clients learn through testing and feedback loops.
Model developmental curiosity. Coaches who model reflection encourage clients to do the same.
Embed accountability. Track progress through regular reflection, not just outcomes.
Integrate across coaching disciplines. ITC fits within leadership, career, and team coaching equally well.

The Immunity to Change model is a profound tool for personal and professional development, shedding light on the hidden barriers that often keep us stuck in unproductive patterns. Coaches play a vital role in guiding individuals through this transformative process, helping them confront their hidden commitments and challenge their limiting assumptions. With the support of a skilled coach, professionals can break free from the grip of their immunity to change, unlock their true potential, and achieve their goals. As we continue to navigate the complexities of the modern world, understanding and addressing our immunity to change is more important than ever in our pursuit of personal and professional growth. Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey continue to engage in research and writing related to adult development and the Immunity to Change model, ensuring its relevance and applicability to current challenges and contexts.

FAQ’s

1. How can I use the Immunity to Change model in leadership coaching?
Use it to help leaders identify the internal barriers preventing behavioural change—especially around influence, resilience, and delegation.

2. How does the model support career coaching clients?
It helps professionals uncover and reframe self-limiting beliefs that prevent career advancement or confidence in transitions.

3. Can the Immunity to Change model be used in team coaching?
Yes. Teams can map their collective “immunity systems” that block collaboration, innovation, or trust.

4. Is the model evidence-based?
Absolutely. The ITC model is grounded in decades of Harvard research on adult development and has been integrated into leadership programs globally.