Leading Change – The Kotter Perspective
Leading Change, a book by Dr. John Kotter, remains a must-have for Change Leaders. His book outlines 8 Steps to effectively lead, implement, and sustain a successful change project.
Here are the 8 Steps:
- Create a Sense of Urgency – Why is the change necessary right now?
- Build a Guiding Coalition – Identify key Champions – the people that will really rally the change and the messaging – One person is never enough.
- Form a Strategic Vision and Initiatives – Clarify “The Why” for the Change & Continually Restate it throughout the project.
- Enlist a Volunteer Army – Create a large-scale movement in the direction of change.
- Enable action by Removing Barriers – Actively remove obstacles by seeking and acting on feedback.
- Generate Short-term Wins – Show the benefits throughout the project – Demonstrate the value of the change by addressing “the low-hanging fruit” (ugh – sorry – I’m not a big fan of that phrase).
- Sustain Acceleration – Build on the change, continue with the previous 6 Steps (as the Vision is rarely realized the first time around – stay relentless in building off of the previous change).
- Institute Change – Once the change is realized, embed the Change from an infrastructure standpoint. In other words, create a new norm.
In his steps, he’s proposing a solid strategy that addresses an organization’s culture first. For example, the first three steps are about creating a climate for change; The next steps, Steps 4-6, are about engaging and enabling the whole organization, and the last two steps are the implementing and sustaining change pieces.
References and Resources
- John Kotter – Leading Change
- Continue here to read a very similar methodology.
Supporting Music
The Less I Know the Better by Tame Impala
Here to Forever by Death Cab for Cutie
Originally Published May 23, 2018