Leading Change By John P. Kotter

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.

Kotter’s 8-Step approach to transformational change begins with creating a sense of urgency. Creating a sense of urgency involves examining markets and competitive realities and identifying and discussing crises, potential crises, or major opportunities (Weiss, 2012). At its peak, Microsoft was at the forefront of computing technology. This position led to “overnight millionaires” that eventually skewed the perspective of the once eager employees. Long time executives ended up letting new employees handle everything while they waited for the next windfall. Instead of continuing a momentum of innovation, they [Microsoft] had allowed themselves to reach a plateau while the competition past them by. Innovation gave way to employees

Another researcher, John P. Kotter (2006) outlined the “Eight Steps to Transforming Your Organization,” which are:

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.

This course has taught me a lot in terms of initiating and managing change, and Kotter’s eight-stage process is a very useful approach when it comes to making changes within an organization. This course has helped me strengthen my skills in overcoming barriers that tend to get and make it difficult to

Organizations must respond to their internal and external environment. Therefore, organizational success heavily relies on leaderships ability to manage change. Unfortunately, many leaders struggle to effectively lead change initiatives. In fact, Ashkenas (2013, para. 1) reported 60 – 70% of organizational change initiatives fail to meet their objectives.

The purpose of this paper is to use the course concepts to expand upon the topic of leadership styles. I will define leadership and management; explain how the two play a role during organizational change management and how this information can be used by practicing managers. Lewin’s change model combined with Kotter’s eight step change model will be used to present an understanding of and emphasize the importance of leadership through the stages of change.

The book The Heart of Change shows the practical side of the theories that are taught in the course textbook. It presents stories of successes and failures based in the application of concepts discussed in Organizational Behavior and Management and in class. Although we talked about several different concepts the ones that are evident in the examples in The Heart Of Change are the more progressive and individual centered approaches. The leadership characteristics that are important to successful change in an organization are those that are espoused in the transformational theory of management. It makes sense that ideals in line with the transformational management theory

The steps being presented were developed in the book A Sense of Urgency by Dr. John Kotter, “internationally known and widely regarded as the foremost speaker on the topics of Leadership and Change” (“Facility & Research”, para. 1). He is a Harvard and MIT graduate, currently teaching at Harvard as a Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership. As an author, 12 of his 18 books are bestsellers with sales exceeding three million copies. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Society for Training & Development in 2009 for “his extensive body of work and the significant impact he has had on learning and performance in organizations” (“Facility & Research”, para. 4).

Van de Ven A, Sun K. Breakdowns in Implementing Models of Organization Change. Academy Of Management Perspectives [serial online]. August 2011;25(3):58-74. Available from: Business

John Kotter, the author of the well known book “Our Iceberg is Melting: Changing and Succeeding under Any Conditions “, taught for more than thirty years at Harvard Business School. Kotter could be considered an expert in the field of business with his many years of experience. After retiring from teaching, he then founded Kotter International and has spent his time assisting others in the area of implementing changes. He, like many others before him, observed the challenges that many businesses, organizations, and other institutions faced when trying to make changes. Over the years he observed that changes are not easily implemented or accepted because people in

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

The step two of Kotter’s process of change is create guiding coalitions. Tesla need assembling a group with enough power to lead the change effort. Those people can be managers from Tesla and This team is built by expertise in order to influence other employees of Tesla.

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.

In this dynamic business environment, change is inevitable. Changes can be planned, or unintentional: depending on the driving forces behind. The major forces for change can be derived from the nature of the workforce, technology, economic shocks, competition, social trends, and world politics (Robbins & Judge, 2011). In this post the author will explain the Kotter’s eight –step approaches to managing organizational change and discuss how his company handles the planned changes in term of organization reconstruction.