Leading Change
by
John P. Kotter
Basic Premise
• The amount of significant, often
traumatic, change in organizations has
grown tremendously over the past two
decades (www = 1991)
• Powerful macroeconomic forces are at
work here, and these forces will grow
even stronger
• A significant amount of the waste and
anguish associated with change is
avoidable
8 Errors in Leading Change
1. Allowing Too Much Complacency
(Rotary’s #1 Enemy)
2. Failing to Create a Sufficiently Powerful
Guiding Coalition
3. Underestimating the Power of Vision
(or the vacuum if one is lacking)
4. Undercommunicating the Vision by a
Factor of 10 (or 100 or even 1,000)
8 Errors in Leading Change
5. Permitting Obstacles to Block the New
Vision (including elder naysayers)
6. Failing to Create Short-Term Wins
7. Declaring Victory Too Soon
8. Neglecting to Anchor Changes Firmly in
the Organizational Culture
Error #1 - Allowing Too Much
Complacency
1.
2.
3.
4.
Insufficient sense of urgency
Lack of visible crises
Low expectations
Acceptance of mediocrity
Error #1 - Allowing Too Much
Complacency
Error #2 - Failing to Create a
Sufficiently Powerful Guiding Coalition
1. Not including influential “thought leaders”
from the membership
2. Getting hijacked by group dynamics vs.
conversations with individuals
Error #3 - Underestimating the
Power of Vision
1. Plans, programs and procedures in lieu
of Vision
2. A Vision that takes more than 5 minutes
to describe
3. A Vision that isn’t sufficiently compelling
to excite and inspire the membership
Error #4 - Undercommunicating the
Vision by a Factor of 10 (or 100 or 1000)
1. Making only a few announcements or
sending out only a few emails
•
Surprised when people don’t seem to
understand
2. President making speeches – Board
silent
•
Not enough reinforcement
3. Visible members’ behavior is counter to
the Vision
Error #5 - Permitting Obstacles to
Block the New Vision
1. Lack of organizational support
(an effective membership committee)
2. Lack of recognition systems
3. Lip service (or worse) from influential
members
4. Elder naysayers
Error #6 - Failing to Plan for & Create
Short-Term Wins
1. Don’t plan for achievable short-term
results
2. Doesn’t boost the credibility of the
change initiative
3. Fail to establish intermediate goals
4. Ignore those who achieve the objectives
5. Fail to reward those involved
Error #7 - Declaring Victory Too Soon
1. Confusing short-term wins with victory –
initiators go overboard
2. Resisters breathe a sigh of relief
3. Failure to maintain the sense of urgency
4. Failure to have follow-on projects
planned and ready
Error #8 - Neglecting to Anchor
Changes Firmly in the Culture
1. Failing to show people how changes
have improved things – make the
connections for them
2. Letting changes be perceived as a
1-time “program”
3. Making succession decisions that don’t
support the new culture
8- Stage Process for Change
1.
2.
3.
4.
Establishing a sense of urgency
Creating the guiding coalition
Developing a Vision and Strategy
Communicating the change Vision
8-Stage Process for Change
5. Empowering (expecting) a broad base of
members to take action
6. Generating short-term wins
7. Consolidating gains and producing even
more change
8. Institutionalizing new attitudes in the
culture
Stage 1 – Establishing a Sense of
Urgency
1. Recalibrate expectations – Status Quo is
not an acceptable future
Doing more of what we’re doing
will get us more of what we have
2. Eliminate “happy talk” – Don’t end with
“but we’re OK”
3. Create a crisis
My Change Leadership Challenge
1. Describe the most pressing change
leadership challenge in your life right now
a) Situation or problem in a group of which
you’re a member that you could influence
b) The change you’d like to make – how would
you like this situation to be different?
2. Pair off
3. Person on left – explain your challenge
4. Person on right is the coach – asks
clarifying questions
My Change Leadership Challenge
•
Questions:
–
–
–
–
–
5.
What convinces you this is a problem that needs
changing?
What happens if you don't get this changed?
Is this really the best solution to this problem - are
there other options?
What's the biggest benefit of getting this done?
How will you create a crisis? What crisis?
Switch roles
Stage 2 – Creating a Powerful
Guiding Coalition
1. Assemble a small (2-3) group of likeminded thought leaders
2. Create trust
3. Develop a common goal
My Guiding Coalition
1. Name members of your Guiding Coalition
2. Identify their roles
3. Describe how you’ll ask them to help
Stage 3 – Creating a Vision
VERSION #1:
Our goal is to reduce our mean time to repair
parameters so that they are perceptually lower
than all major competitors inside the United
States and out. In a similar vein, we have
targeted new-product development cycle times,
order process times, and other customer-relevant
processes for change.
VERSION #2:
We are going to become faster than anyone in
our industry at satisfying customer needs
Stage 3 – Creating a Vision
VERSION #1:
Our Rotary club will continue its legacy of
community service, utilizing our influential
membership to assist agencies in our
community to achieve their missions
VERSION #2:
Our Rotary club will be the growing,
effective, vibrant force in our community,
making it a better place to live
Stage 3 – Creating a Vision
Or:
More Rotarians, doing
more projects, in
more of the world
The clubs of Rotary District 7750 will grow in
membership, leadership depth and financial
support, accelerating our pace of doing good in
both our local communities and the world
Stage 3 – Creating a Vision
Characteristics of an Effective Vision
1. Imaginable -- A picture of the future
2. Desirable -- Appeals to the long-term
interests of stakeholders
3. Feasible -- Realistic, attainable goals
4. Focused -- Guides decision making
5. Flexible -- Allows initiative
6. Communicable -- Can be successfully
explained within five minutes
My Vision
1. Take your first pass at describing your
Vision for this change challenge
2. Same coaching partner
3. Person on right – describe your Vision
4. Person on left is the coach – help your
partner make it:
–
–
–
–
More inspiring
More compelling
Crisper
Tighter
Stage 4 – Communicating the Vision
Stage 4 – Communicating the Vision
Key elements in the effective communication of vision
1. Simplicity -- All jargon and technobabble eliminated
2. Metaphor, analogy, and example -- A verbal picture
3. Multiple forums -- Big meetings and small, memos and
newsletters, formal and informal interaction
4. Repetition
5. Leadership by example -- Behavior from important
people
6. Explanation of seeming inconsistencies
7. Give-and-take -- Two-way
KEYS
COMMUNICATION
StageTO
4 –EFFECTIVE
Communicating
the Vision
– Situation
• Explain current facts
– Problem
• “The problem with that is…..”
– Implication
• “That means……”
– Need
• “Therefore, we need to……”
SPIN
StageExample
4 – Communicating the Vision
– Situation
“Our club has been on a steady downward
membership trend, losing an average of 2
members per year for the past 5 years.”
– Problem
“The problem with that is the club has
learned to accept membership decline as a
natural occurrence and has forgotten that
growth, not attrition, is the goal.”
SPIN
StageExample
4 – Communicating the Vision
– Implication
“If we stay on this track, we’re going to find
ourselves with steadily smaller meetings and
potential members asking, “Is this really a
group I want to be a part of?”
“Once we lose the ability to attract members,
it’s only a matter of time until we all age out
together and the club goes out of business.”
SPIN
Example
Keys
to Effective Communication
– Need
“Therefore, we need to help the members
understand that growing the club is essential
to our survival.
“We need to help them understand that
attracting more members is in everyone’s
best interest, including the new members.
“We need to provide a compelling VISION of
a growing, vibrant club and inspire them to
make it that way”
SPIN
Example
Your
Vision Communication Plan
– Situation
• Explain current facts
– Problem
• “The problem with that is…..”
– Implication
• “That means……”
– Need
• “Therefore, we need to……”
Communicating the Vision
1. Build your SPIN script
2. Change partners – person on the left end
moves around the table
3. Partner on right delivers SPIN script
4. Partner on left makes excuses for the
status quo – suggests obstacles you can
anticipate
5. Switch roles
Stage 5 -- Empowering Others
to Act
1. Communicate a sensible vision to members -If members have a shared sense of purpose, it
will be easier to initiate actions to achieve that
purpose
2. Provide the training members need -- Without
the right skills and attitudes, people feel
disempowered
3. Provide data and scorecards to track progress
4. Confront members who undercut your vision -Nothing disempowers people the way a bad
example can
Stage 6 – Planning & Creating
Short-Term Wins
The role of short-term wins
1. Provide evidence that the effort is worth it
2. Reward achievers with a pat on the back
3. Help fine-tune vision and strategies -- Shortterm wins give the guiding coalition concrete
data
4. Undermine cynics and self-serving resisters -Clear improvements make it difficult to block
change
5. Keep believers on board -- Provide evidence
6. Build momentum -- Turns neutrals into
supporters, reluctant supporters into active
helpers, etc.
Short-Term Wins
1. List ideas for short-term wins
2. Share with your partner
3. Partner – Suggest others you can think of
4. Switch roles
Stage 7 -- Consolidating Gains and
Producing Still more Change
1. More change, not less -- Use credibility
from short-term wins
2. More help -- More people drawn into the
process of improving the club
3. Leadership from senior management –
Club leaders focus on maintaining clarity
and keeping urgency up
4. Leadership from below – Invite newer or
less-engaged members to take part
5. Reduce Impediments – Ask “What’s
getting in the way?” and fix that
Stage 8 -- Institutionalizing New
Attitudes into the Culture
1. Culture comes last, not first
2. Depends on results – Proof that new
approaches work and are superior to old
3. Requires a lot of talk
4. May involve turnover – May need to drop
members to change culture