Scribd
Upload
150 views2 pages

Worksheet Internal Barriers To Change

Uploaded by

riteshjain12345
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
150 views2 pages

Worksheet Internal Barriers To Change

Uploaded by

riteshjain12345
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Overcome Internal Barriers to Change

INSTRUCTIONS

Use this worksheet to identify your internal barriers to change and get unstuck:

1. Identify:
 Your improvement goal. Phrase this as a commitment to making a specific change or as the
desired state after the change has been implemented.

 The behaviors that prevent you from reaching your goal. These are the actions you actually
take, despite your intentions.

 Your hidden competing commitments. List the reasons why you do the things you noted above,
even though they sabotage your efforts to reach your improvement goal.

 The underlying assumptions that cause you to act in this self-defeating way. These are the
beliefs that undermine achievement of your goal.

IMPROVEMENT BEHAVIORS THAT GO HIDDEN COMPETING UNDERLYING


GOAL AGAINST MY GOAL COMMITMENTS ASSUMPTIONS

I am committed to I bring up concerns at the I am so concerned If I don’t do a final


improving my team’s on- last minute, which often about the possibility of review, the product will
time product delivery causes delays in shipping releasing a faulty go out with errors. I’ll
rate. product that I have a
the product. be reprimanded if a
hard time signing off on
it. customer complains to
about quality issues.
Others will think I’m
bad at my job if I let
errors slip through. And
I assume customers
would rather receive
the product late than
for it to have bugs.

Page 1 of 2
d
© 2020 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business School Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School
2. Question your assumptions. Which belief, if changed or acted against, would make the biggest
difference for implementing this change? For example, what if customers would rather get the product on
time, even if it contains minor bugs? And what if, rather than criticizing you, your boss would be willing to
reallocate resources to ensure both quality and timeliness of the final product?

3. Design small-scale experiments. Test what would happen if you shifted your assumptions. For
example, you could create a quality-assurance checklist for your team to use—and then trust them to
carefully implement it so that your final sign-off is a formality.

4. Notice whether, over time, the new behavior begins to take root. If not, experiment with other ways to
shift your beliefs and to take different actions. For example, if you think your team lets errors slip through,
you could sign them up for additional training.

* Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey, “The Real Reason People Won’t Change,” Harvard Business Review, November 2001; Jessie Sholl,
How to Overcome Immunity to Change,” ExperienceLife.com, May 2011.

Page 2 of 2 d

© 2020 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business School Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School.

You might also like