John Kotter

Leading Change

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Eight-Stage Process for Creating Major Change

Done in Three Phases

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Defrost aHardened Status Quo

1. Establish a Sense of Urgency2. Create the Guiding Coalition3. Develop a Vision and Strategy4. Communicate the Change

Vision

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Introduce New Practices

5. Empower Broad-Based Action6. Generate Short-Term Wins7. Consolidate Gains and

Produce More Change

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Making Change Last

8. Anchor New Approaches in the Culture

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Create a Sense of Urgency

“Never underestimate the magnitude of the forces that reinforce

complacency and that help maintain the status quo.”

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Create the Guiding Coalition

Position PowerExpertiseCredibilityLeadership Leadership Skills Management Skills

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Two Types to Avoid at All Cost

“The first have egos that fill up a room, leaving no space for anybody else.”

“The second are what I call snakes, people who create enough mistrust to kill teamwork.”

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Develop a Vision & Strategy

Refer to Skip’s Presentations

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Communicate the Vision

“Without credible communication, and a lot of it, employee’s hearts and minds

are never captured.”

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“Nothing undermines change more than behavior by

important individuals that is inconsistent with the verbal

communication.”

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“Nothing undermines the communication of a change vision more than behavior on the part of key players that seems inconsistent with the vision.”

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Empower Action

“The purpose of stage 5 is to empower a broad base of people to take action by removing as many barriers to the implementation of the change vision as possible at this point in the process.”

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Communicate a sensible vision to the employees

Make structures compatible with the vision

Provide the training employees need

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Align information and personnel systems to the vision

Confront supervisors who undercut change

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Generate Short-Term Wins

Need compelling evidence of benefits of change in 6 to 18 months.

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Characteristics ofShort-Term Wins

Visible to Many People

Unambiguous

Clearly Related to the Change Effort

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“In a way, the primary purpose of the first six steps of the transformation process is to build up sufficient momentum to blast through the dysfunctional granite walls found in so many organizations.”

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Consolidate Change & Produce More Change

“Until changes sink down deeply into the culture, which for an entire company can take three to ten years, new approaches are fragile and subject to regression.”

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“The premature victory celebration stops all momentum. And then powerful forces associated with tradition take over.”

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“Whenever you let up before the job is done, critical momentum can be lost and regression may follow.”

“Irrational and political resistance to change never fully dissipates.”

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Anchor New Approaches in the Culture

“Change sticks only when it becomes ‘the way we do things around here,’ when it seeps into the very bloodstream of the work unit or corporate body.”

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“Until new behaviors are rooted in social norms and shared values, they are always subject to degradation as soon as the pressures associated with a change effort are removed.”

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“Culture changes only after you have successfully altered people’s actions, after the new behavior produces some group benefit for a period of time, and after people see the connectionbetween the new actions and the performance improvement.”