Common questions.

Immunity to Change™ (ITC) is a research-based methodology developed by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey at Harvard. It starts from a counterintuitive finding: most people who fail to make changes they most want aren't lacking motivation or discipline — they're running a hidden competing commitment that protects something they haven't yet been able to name. The ITC process makes that hidden system visible through a structured four-column map, and then creates the conditions for testing whether the assumptions underneath it still hold. The result is the kind of change that willpower and good intentions alone rarely produce.

Most approaches to change work at the behavioral level — they try to add skills, shift habits, or install better practices. ITC works at the level of meaning-making: it asks what you are currently protecting, and why. The change it produces is adaptive rather than technical — it shifts the underlying structure of how you make sense of a situation, not just what you do in response to it. This is why it tends to reach problems that have resisted other approaches.

It's none of those things exactly, though it shares elements with each. ITC is a structured developmental process grounded in adult development research. It isn't therapy — it doesn't work with clinical material or psychological history. It isn't coaching in the traditional sense — it has a specific method and diagnostic tool rather than an open coaching agenda. And it isn't training — you aren't learning new skills, you're examining the assumptions that have been limiting you. Many coaches, therapists, and consultants use ITC as one tool among others in their practice.

Yes. The Change Course is designed for anyone who has a genuine change goal they haven't been able to accomplish — regardless of professional background. ITC was developed for individuals first, and the personal application of the method is as powerful as the professional one. Many people come to ITC not to practice it with others but to work through something important in their own lives or leadership.

It depends on what you're looking for. If you want to work through your own immunity to change, start with The Change Course — a six-week guided process for individuals. If you're a coach or practitioner who wants to use ITC with clients, the ITC Facilitator's Workshop is the entry point. If you want a theoretical grounding in adult development before diving into the method, the Introduction to Adult Development Theory workshop is a good foundation. The right starting point depends on your background, your goals, and how you learn best — we're happy to help you think it through.

The Change Course and ITC Facilitator's Workshop have no prerequisites — they're designed for people new to ITC. ITC for 1:1 Coaching: Maps and Tests and ITC with Teams require prior experience with the ITC Facilitator's Workshop or equivalent grounding. Introduction to Adult Development Theory is open to anyone. SOI Training requires a strong grounding in ADT — the Introduction to ADT workshop is good preparation. The Coach Certification Program requires prior completion of the ITC Facilitator's Workshop and meaningful experience applying ITC. Each program page has the full prerequisite details.

There's no single prescribed path — it depends on your background and how you've been developing your practice. Most participants come to the CCP having completed the ITC Facilitator's Workshop and spent time applying ITC in real coaching or facilitation work. Some have also done ITC for 1:1 Coaching: Maps and Tests or the ADT workshop. What matters most is that you arrive with genuine practice experience and a readiness to work at depth. If you're considering the CCP and unsure whether you're ready, reach out — we're glad to talk it through.

Several programs carry International Coaching Federation (ICF) credit hours. The ITC Facilitator's Workshop, ITC for 1:1 Coaching: Maps and Tests, ITC with Teams, and SOI Training all offer ICF Continuing Coach Education (CCE) credits. The specific hour breakdown — Core Competency and Resource Development — is listed on each program page.

The Coach Certification Program (CCP) is the only pathway to ITC coach certification. It's a selective, 12-month program that develops advanced mastery of the method — including the ability to work with the ITC map at depth, an understanding of the adult development theory underlying the approach, and the capacity to hold the kind of developmental space that the work requires. Certification signifies that a practitioner has been trained, supervised, and assessed by the MAW faculty, and has demonstrated genuine competence in the method. Certified coaches are listed in the MAW coach directory.

Certified ITC coaches use the method in a range of ways — with individual clients working on leadership development, with teams, in organizational consulting, and as a framework for executive coaching engagements. Some coaches build their practice primarily around ITC; others use it as one powerful tool among several. The certification is recognized by organizations and HR leaders who know the method and want to ensure their coaches have genuine grounding in it. Many certified coaches also find that the training deepens their overall coaching practice, beyond ITC itself.

Organizational work — applying ITC and adult development frameworks at the team and enterprise level — is done through Incandescent, the advisory firm that Minds at Work is part of. Incandescent works with leadership teams and organizations pursuing strategies that require them to break through the limits of how they currently operate. If you're interested in this kind of engagement, the best place to start is a conversation. Reach out through the contact page and we'll make sure you're connected to the right people.