Analysis Of Kotter 's ' 1st Eight Stage Process

Foreword by Spenser Johnson: One the surface, the story of this book appears to be a fable that is relatively easy to grasp, but it does subtly impart an invaluable lesson on change. The book covers John Kotter’s Eight Steps to bring about successful organizational change and can be equally useful for a high-school student as it is for a CEO of a multi-national organization.

Step 2 is forming a powerful guiding coalition. Leadership will have to be on board and on the same page in regards to the change. Kotter and Cohen reveal the core problems people face when leading change. Their main findings are that the central issue concerns not structure or systems but behavior and how to alter it (Farris, 2008). The success of the changes will depend on the ability of the managers to show their commitment to change and motivate the employees to do the same. Without any process to track the implementation, the change can also fail.

It was noted that communication efforts must be verbal and active (Kotter, 1995). Kotter eight step change model has many drawbacks and benefits. The advantages are that it is the step by step, which is easy to follow model. Another is that it does not focus on the change itself, but rather the acceptance and the preparation of this change, which makes it an easy transition. In Kotter’s and Lewin’s models, both consider the difficulties that organizations encounter when trying to move people from their comfort zone for the change to happen. In both of the models they use a different set of calculations to know whether there is any need to change to take place in the

They have to enlist others in a common vision (p. 17). The challenge, Kouzes & Posner says is to turn the idea into an inspired vision (p.106). The leader needs to imagine the possibilities and find a common purpose. The authors refer to James MacGregory Burns transformational leadership theory asserting that people commit to causes, not plans (p. 122). In order to have a transforming effect, the leader must raise the level of human conduct and ethical aspiration of both the leader and follower. Just like Kotter (1990) outlines the methods to change an organizational culture is by telling stories, using symbols, the designing of physical space, using jargon, rituals, etc., Kouzes & Posner suggest the same thing when they explain the power in using symbolic language to communicate a shared identify and give life to a vision (p. 143). When challenging the process, leaders know that in order to bring change they have to experiment and take risk (p. 19). The authors indicate that “proactive people tend to work harder …[by being] persistent in achieving their goals (p. 169) and treat every job as an adventure (p. 184).”

The first step in driving the necessary change within the organization is to secure an outside consultant to serve as a change agent. The change agent will facilitate and guide the organizational development (OD) through process consultation intervention. In this process, it will be necessary to identify sources of resistance through Force field analysis. Once the sources are identified, one-on-one meetings and group meetings will be conducted to educate the employees on the changes and the reasons why change is necessary. This step will find the management team working to re-define the vision of the organization. As part of

To have to establish a sense of urgency is crucial when needing to gain cooperation. If complacency is high, transformation usually goes nowhere because very few people are even interested in working on change or becoming the change. If urgency is low, it is difficult to put together a group with enough power and credibility to guide the change effort or to convince key individuals to append the time necessary to create and communicate a change vision. People typically change because they want to avoid something that they believe will happen without the change. Despite that, if there is not a sufficient sense of urgency, they still don’t change because they aren’t pushed out of that comfort zone. One of Kotter’s solutions is to create a crisis. Nothing rallies people to change faster than a major crisis. I like the idea of hitting people or bombard is the word Kotter uses with information about potential opportunities for the organization, as well as the rich reward within those opportunities. Then explaining why those opportunities can’t be realized without change. I also agree with his idea of using consultants to force honest discussions. As change moves from the episodic to the continuous, urgency is very crucial when you need something done as fast as possible. Kotter further differentiates between true and false urgency, noting

You also must form a powerful coalition and create a vision for change. This begins with strong leadership and effective communication skills in order to communicate your vision. Another step in the process is to remove obstacle or barriers that may block or prevent change from happening. You must also motivate the team along the way by creating short term goals, building on change and anchoring the changes in corporate culture. Kotter put an emphasis on step one which is creating urgency for change. You must be convincing and open when presenting this change to your team to gain their support. It is important to give scenarios, show the benefits of making this change and the drawbacks of not making the change.

adopt before setting out on a change initiative. Kotter identifies the ‘‘analysis-thinkchange’’ mindset as the traditional method

Now, it is time to pass along that enthusiasm to other members. The idea is for others to become motivated and excited about the possibilities of change as well. The authors were able to clearly express this by encouraging others to become involved in the changes that were going to impact everyone on

1: Increase urgency – motivate and inspire people to move, make objectives real and appealing for them. This is most important factor because without creating an urgency, you cannot motivate your employees and the desired goal cannot be met.

Competitive imperatives of market forces and customer demands in today’s environment have led to the emergence of less hierarchical and more flexible organisations (Doyle, 2001). In working towards this paradigm shift, a distinction and clarification of the relationship between leadership and management in the change process needs to be addressed. According to Caldwell (2003), change leaders are executives or senior managers at the very top of the organisation who envision, initiate or sponsor strategic change of far-reaching or transformational nature by challenging the status quo, communicating a vision that employees believe in, and empowering them to act. In contrast, change managers are usually middle level managers and functional

Change happens in all aspects of life. Leaders view change as being good most of the time. An organization can’t move forward without change. This paper will discuss how leaders can use levels of change and the steps of Kotter’s change model to implement change. It will also give a Christian worldview as it pertains to the topics. Leader must learn the language to effectively communicate change. This will give managers an advantage and help demonstrate the vision for the future.

In the review of the book, “Making Change Work: Practical Tools for Overcoming Human Resistance to Change,” I decided to summarize the major steps the book establishes. It discusses how to begin the change process by understanding your need for change, to the final step of the change process where an organization needs to implement changes. After summarizing the steps, I am going to show how the book relates to the textbook, Organizational Change: An Action-Oriented Toolkit, as well as giving a managerial implication.

However, people will not get out of their “comfort zone” without being motivated. This leads to the second error by leaders, which is not creating a powerful enough guiding coalition. Regardless of the size of the organization, the change effort should continually grow to include more and more people who believe that the changes are necessary (Kotter).

It is generally noted that Albert Einstein once said, “the measure of intelligence is the ability to change”. John Kotter embedded this mindset that continually adapting and evolving can lead to success within the novel Our Iceberg is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Condition. Kotter’s and Rathgeber structural organization allows change management to be introduced through a relatable fable highlighting the needed steps to properly manage a group dealing with change. Tone, approach, and mood management are amongst the areas defined as crucial in managing change and making it acceptable. Kotter also introduces what he defines as The Eight Step Process of Successful Change that are surrounded by the themes of Setting the stage, Deciding what to do, Making it happen, and Making it stick. This novel is the example of how to effectively manage change within an organization as well as individually.