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Title: Leading Change by John P. Kotter ISBN: 0-87584-747-1 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: 15 January, 1996 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.57 (46 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Transforming Organizations is Tough Without Leading Change!
Comment: Transforming organizations is tough! It is more difficult than many people realize. Generally, leaders attempt change efforts that are too mild and then give them too little time to succeed. As a result, many transformations fail.
Even though this book was published four years ago, it is still on the cutting edge of modern, linear change in organizations. In my own consulting work I see this book--more than any other--used as a reference point when dicussing change strategies.
Kotter's ideas of establishing a sense of urgency and creating a guiding coalition brought great insight to the part of the change process known as readiness. Another great contribution is the idea that culture--being the most difficult thing to change--is generally the last change tackled, and the capping change that must take place for true lasting change to occur.
John Kotter begins this book by sharing why transformation efforts fail. He then takes the reader on a journey through an eight stage process of creating major change. He concludes this three-part book with a look at the implications for the twenty-first cnetury related to organizations and leadership.
Any facilitator or recipient of change efforts who has not read this book, has missed one of the mandatory books about the change process in North American culture.
Buy it today!
Rating: 5
Summary: Eight-stage process for transformation programs
Comment: John P. Kotter is Professor of Leadership at the Harvard Business School. He has written several books and articles on general management and leadership issues. This particular book builds on his 1995 Harvard Business Review-article 'Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail'.
The book is split up into three parts. In the first part - The Change Problem and Its Solution - Kotter discusses the eight main reasons why in many situations the improvements have been disappointing, with wasted resources and burned-out, scared, or frustrated employees. Each of these eight errors are discussed in detail, using simple, clear examples. "Making any of the eight errors in common to transformation efforts can have serious consequences." But Kotter argues that these errors are not inevitable. And this is why Kotter has written this book. "The key lies in understanding why organizations resist needed change, what exactly is the multistage process that can overcome destructive inertia, and, most of all, how the leadership that is required to drive that process in a socially healthy way means more than good management." In Chapter 2, Kotter discusses the reasons why organizations (can) need changes and improvements. Although some people suggest otherwise, Kotter believes that organizations can implement change successfully. "The methods used in successful transformations are all based on one fundamental insight: that major change will not happen easily for a long list of reasons." Kotter introduces an eight-stage process for creating major change.
This eight-stage process is discussed in Part Two of this book:
(1) The first stage of the process involves the establishment of a sense of urgency, which is required to overcome complacency. The nine sources of complacency are discussed, whereby Kotter emphasizes that "a good rule of thumb in a major change effort is: Never underestimate the magnitude of the forces that reinforce complacency and that help maintain the status quo." He further discusses methods for raising urgency levels, the role of crises, and the role of middle and lower-level managers.
(2) The second stage involves the creation of a guiding coalition. "A strong guiding coalition is always needed - one with the right composition, level of trust, and shared objective." According to the author the four key characteristics to effective guiding coalition are position power, expertise, credibility, and leadership. And he emphasizes that management and leadership must work in tandem, teamwork style.
(3) The third stage requires the development of a vision and strategy. Good vision clarifies the general direction for change, motivates people to take action in the right direction, and it helps coordinate people's actions. The characteristics of an effective vision are imaginable, desirable, feasible, focused, flexible, and communicable. But vision alone is not enough. "This is where strategy plays an important role. Strategy provides both logic and a first level detail to show how a vision can be accomplished."
(4) The power of a vision is most powerful when all people within an organization have a common understanding of its goals and direction. Although the general myth is that failures to communicate vision are attributed to either limited intellectual capabilities among lower-level employees or a general human resistance to change. But that is not really the problem. The vision needs to be communicated in a clear, simple message (focused and jargon-free). Kotter discusses each of the seven key elements in the communication of vision.
(5) Empowering employees for broad-based action - "Discouraged and disempowered employees never make enterprises winners in a globalizing economic environment. But with the right structure, training, systems, and supervisors to build on a well-communicated vision, increasing numbers of firms are finding that they can tap an enormous source of power to improve organizational performance. They can mobilize hundreds or thousands of people to help provide leadership to produce needed changes."
(6) Major change takes time and it is therefore advisable to pay serious attention to short-term wins. Short-term wins should be visible, unambiguous, and related to the change effort. Short-term wins play various roles in a change effort, most notably building the necessary momentum.
(7) Many forces can stall a change process short of the finish line. And we should be aware that irrational and political resistance to change never fully dissipates. We should not let the celebration of short-term wins allow complacency back into the organization. We should also be aware that progress can slip away for two reasons: corporate culture (see more in the next stage) and increased interdependence as a result from interconnections.
(8) "Culture refers to norms of behavior and shared values among a group of people." In large organizations, there are some social forces (corporate culture) that affect everyone. Corporate cultures have a powerful influence on human behavior, since it is almost impossible to change and invisible. Kotter believes that "culture is powerful for three reasons: (i) Because individuals are selected and indoctrinated so well. (ii) Because the culture exerts itself through the actions of hundreds or thousands of people. (iii) Because all of this happens without much conscious intent and thus is difficult to challenge or even discuss." He provides with one other important warning: "most cultural change happens in stage 8, not stage 1."
Part III - Implications for the Twenty-First Century - consists of two chapters. In the first chapter, Kotter discusses the organization of the future. In particular, the impact of the future on the eight stages in the change process. There is an interesting table, which compares the differences in structure, systems, and culture between 20th-century and 21st-century organizations. "The key to creating and sustaining the kind of successful 21st-century organization is leadership - not only at the top of the hierarchy, with a capital L, but also in a more modest sense (l) throughout the enterprise." These two notions are discussed in detail in the final chapter of the book.
Yes, this is an excellent book on controlling change. The book provides an extremely useful framework for a change process and should be kept as a checklist. Although the process looks rigid, the stages are flexible and take place concurrently. I recommend this book to all people involved in a major change process within larger organizations. The author uses simple business US-English.
Rating: 5
Summary: Recommended
Comment: One of the great books on self help practical leadership that has come out in recent years. You can complete your philosophical knowledge on leadership of character by going on to read the Remick book, "West Point: Jefferson: Character Leadership..." when you finish Kotter's "Leading Change".
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Title: The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations by John P. Kotter, Dan S. Cohen ISBN: 1578512549 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by Jim Collins ISBN: 0066620996 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 16 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: John P. Kotter on What Leaders Really Do (Harvard Business Review Book) by John P. Kotter ISBN: 0875848974 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: April, 1999 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change by William Bridges ISBN: 0738208248 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: 27 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Ram Charan, Charles Burck, Larry Bossidy ISBN: 0609610570 Publisher: Crown Business Pub. Date: 15 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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