Kotter Leading Change Why Transformation Efforts Fail Changes take place when looking at a company s competitive situation market position tech trends and financial performance Lessons to be learned from successful cases o Change is a series of phases that take a long time and no phase can be o Critical mistakes in any of the phases can have a devastating impact Error 1 Not establishing a great enough sense of emergency o Examine market and competitive realties o Identifying and discussing crises potential crises or major skipped opportunities convinced o Urgency rate high enough when about 75 of management is o Important to get other people on board with transformation and motivate them or effort goes nowhere o This is really hard underratedly as people are hesitant to step out of comfort zones and are afraid of change o Seniority defensive afraid that there will be negative impact of change o Paralyzed senior management often comes from too many managers and not enough leaders o If goal is to transform entire company having CEO is key if only for division division manger is key o Bad business results are blessing and curse in the first phase easier to get people on board if business is bad o A group actually manufactured a crisis to get others to change more urgently Error 2 Not creating a powerful enough guiding coalition o Assembling a group with enough power to lead the change effort o Encouraging the group to work together as a team o Not just people in senior management o Off site retreats help get people together to create level of trust and commitment o Teamwork is key Error 3 Lacking a vision o Creating a vision to help direct the change effort o Developing strategies for achieving that vision o If you cannot communicate vision clearly in five minutes or less you are not yet done with this phase o Goes beyond numbers in five year plans o Clarify direction in which organization needs to move o Without a sensible vision a transformation effort can dissolve and take organization in wrong direction Error 4 Not communicating the vision o Using every vehicle possible to communicate the new vision and strategies o Teach new behaviors by the example of the guiding coalition o Particularly challenging if includes job losses Error 5 Not empowering others to act on the vision o Getting rid of obstacles to change o Changing systems or structures that seriously undermine the o Encouraging risk taking and nontraditional ideas activities and o Can be organizational structure compensation or performance vision actions appraisal o If it is a person it is important that he is treated fairly and in a way consistent with new vision o Action is essential both to empower others and to maintain credibility of change effort as a whole Error 6 Not planning for and creating short term wins o Planning visible performance improvements o Creating those improvements o Recognizing and rewarding employees involved in the improvements o Real transformation takes time so need to celebrate short term wins to keep people motivated o Can take many years till end of transformation Error 7 Declaring victory too soon o Consolidating improvements and producing still more change o Using increased credibility to change systems structures and policies that don t fit the vision o Hiring promoting and developing employees who can o Reinvigorating the process with new projects themes and implement the vision change agents o Celebrating a win is fine but declaring war won is catastrophic Error 8 Not anchoring changes in the corporation s culture o Institutionalizing new approaches o Articulating the connections between the new behaviors and o Developing the means to ensure leadership development and corporate success succession o Need to be known as the way we do things around here o Conscious attempt to show people how the new approaches behaviors and attitudes have helped improve performance so people not left to own ideas o Take sufficient time to make sure that the next generation of top management really does personify new approach or renewal will not last
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