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:

1. Create a Sense of Urgency – Why is the change necessary right now?
2. Build a Guiding Coalition – Identify key Champions – the people that will really rally the change and the messaging – One person is never enough.
3. Form a Strategic Vision and Initiatives – Clarify “The Why” for the Change & Continually Restate it throughout the project.
4. Enlist a Volunteer Army – Create a large-scale movement in the direction of change.
5. Enable action by Removing Barriers – Actively remove obstacles by seeking and acting on feedback.
6. 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).
7. 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).
8. 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

Unbelievable by EMF

The Less I Know the Better by Tame Impala

Here to Forever by Death Cab for Cutie

Originally Published May 23, 2018