Immunity to Change Coaching Program

Program overview

The Immunity to Change Coach Certification Program (CCP) is the advanced practitioner certification offered by Minds at Work, the principal training organization for the Immunity to Change™ (ITC) methodology developed by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The CCP is a 12-month specialist certification for coaches and facilitators who already have professional experience and want to develop mastery in the ITC method, one of the most theoretically grounded and practically rigorous change frameworks in the developmental coaching field. It is not a general coach training program. Graduates earn the ITC coach certification, 51.5 ICF credit hours, and a place in Minds at Work's international certified coach community.

The methodology is grounded in four decades of adult development research and addresses one of coaching's hardest problems: why do intelligent, motivated, well-resourced people repeatedly fail to make changes they genuinely want and intend to make? ITC's answer is structural. A psychological immune system actively, invisibly, and unconsciously protects competing commitments. Making that immune system visible and testable is what the methodology trains coaches to do.

Who it's for

• Experienced coaches, consultants, and facilitators who want specialist certification in the Immunity to Change™ methodology

• Executive and leadership coaches working with clients on organizational, identity-level, or developmental change

• HR and OD professionals who design and run change initiatives and want a rigorous diagnostic method for the change problem

• Therapists, educators, and developmental practitioners already familiar with Kegan's adult development framework

• Anyone seeking a methodologically grounded alternative to behavioral or goal-setting-focused coaching approaches

Prerequisites: Completion of either the ITC Facilitator's Workshop (for group/workshop contexts) or ITC for 1:1 Coaching: Maps and Tests (for individual coaching contexts). Both are Minds at Work programs delivered prior to the CCP.

What you'll learn

The full ITC coaching arc

The complete sequence of exercises and conversations that constitute an Immunity to Change™ coaching engagement, from surfacing the four-column Immunity Map through designing and running assumption-testing experiments with clients. Coaches leave prepared to lead clients through every stage of the ITC process.

The four-column Immunity Map

Minds at Work's core diagnostic tool:

• Column 1: the genuine improvement goal the client wants to achieve

• Column 2: the behaviors they do (and don't do) that work against that goal

• Column 3: the hidden competing commitments and worries that explain those behaviors

• Column 4: the big assumptions behind the competing commitments, the untested beliefs that make the immune system feel necessary

Assumption-testing

How to design and support practical tests of a client's big assumptions, safe-enough experiments that reveal whether the assumption accurately describes reality. This is the move that turns diagnosis into change.

Cohort-based practice and supervision

The CCP runs in a small, international cohort with senior Minds at Work faculty. Sessions include full-group learning, smaller practice groups, and individual mentor coaching. Faculty are experienced ITC coaches and practitioners who have been applying the methodology across sectors for years.

Materials and community

Participants receive the ITC Coaches Guide, the two-volume ITC Guide (providing background, examples, troubleshooting, and practice exercises in print and digital format), and the ITC Workbook with templates for all exercises in the coaching arc. Graduates join an exclusive online community forum and the Minds at Work network of certified ITC coaches.

Credentials

Completing the program earns:

• ITC Coach Certification from Minds at Work — the sole official certification for the Immunity to Change™ methodology

• 51.5 ICF credit hours — applicable toward ICF credential maintenance and credentialing applications

• Listing on Minds at Work's public directory of certified ITC coaches

• Access to the ongoing certified coach community and Minds at Work professional network

Format, duration, and cost

• Duration: 12 months

• Format: online; combination of full-group sessions, smaller practice groups, and individual mentor coaching with senior faculty

• Cohort size: small cohorts; intentionally limited to maintain depth of learning

• Prerequisites: ITC Facilitator's Workshop or ITC for 1:1 Coaching: Maps and Tests (both available from Minds at Work before entering the CCP)

• Cost: contact Minds at Work at mindsatwork.com for current cohort pricing and intake dates

What makes it distinctive

Three things set the ITC certification apart from other specialist coaching programs. First, theoretical depth. The Immunity to Change™ methodology is a direct application of Kegan's constructive-developmental theory, one of the most rigorously researched bodies of knowledge on how adults develop, resist change, and grow, rather than a set of tools adapted from organizational best practices. Coaching grounded in that theory operates at a different level than most behavioral or skills-focused approaches.

Second, the methodological precision: the four-column Immunity Map and assumption-testing process give coaches a repeatable, structured arc for working with the change problem, one where the client can see exactly what is happening and why. This structured visibility is unusual in coaching, which often relies on conversational intuition rather than explicit mapping.

Third, the credential is singular: there is no other program in the world that certifies practitioners in the Immunity to Change™ methodology. Minds at Work is the sole official training body. For coaches who want to work with the ITC framework at the deepest professional level, this is the only path.