Leading Change

When I went through Harvard Business School’s General Management Program, I was lucky enough to spend a day with John Kotter. John was one of the most inspirational presenters on change and demonstrated that to be a great leader you need to be able to drive change within a corporation. Here is my condensed view of John Kotter’s 8 steps to change.
Establish a Sense of Urgency
Examine market and competitive realties for potential crises and untapped opportunities
Convince at least 75% of your managers that the status quo is more dangerous than the unknown
Form a Powerful Guiding Coalition
Assemble a group with shared commitment and enough power to lead the change effort
Encourage them to work as a team outside the normal hierarchy
Create a Vision
Create a vision to direct the change effort
Develop strategies for realizing the vision
Communicate the Vision
Use every vehicle possible to communicate the new vision and strategies for achieving it
Teach new behaviors by the example of the guiding coalition
Empower Others to Act on the Vision
Remove or alter systems or structures undermining the vision
Encourage risk taking and nontraditional ideas, activities and actions
Plan For and Create Short Term Wins
Define and engineer visible performance improvements
Recognize and reward employees contributing to those improvements
Consolidate improvements and produce more change
Use increased credibility from early wins to change systems, structures and policies undermining the vision
Hire, promote and develop employees who can implement the vision
Reinvigorate the change process with new projects and change agents
Institutionalize New Approaches
Articulate connections between new behaviors and corporate successes
Create leadership development and succession plans consistent with the new approach
Related articles
- Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model (martindavis01.wordpress.com)
- Our Iceberg is Melting is NOT about Global Warming (whatwearereading.typepad.com)
- Change Management – Kotter on Steriods (tudleadership.wordpress.com)
Thanks for the link to my article.