The problem with
Kotter’s 8 Steps = Implementation
I recently blogged
about some changes in the Jersey Rowing Club which provide useful lessons for
Change Management in business (link below) A valued reply suggested John P.
Kotter's book - "Leading Change" has an 8 step process which
describes many of the Club's findings.
The problem with Kotter’s 8 Steps is that they don’t
consider the challenge of implementation.
Kotter's eight
step change model can be summarised as:
1.
Increase urgency - inspire people to move,
make objectives real and relevant.
2.
Build the guiding team - get the right
people in place with the right emotional commitment, and the right mix of
skills and levels.
3.
Get the vision right - get the team to
establish a simple vision and strategy, focus on emotional and creative aspects
necessary to drive service and efficiency.
4.
Communicate for buy-in - Involve as many
people as possible, communicate the essentials, simply, and to appeal and
respond to people's needs. De-clutter communications - make technology work for
you rather than against.
5.
Empower action - Remove obstacles, enable
constructive feedback and lots of support from leaders - reward and recognise
progress and achievements.
6.
Create short-term wins - Set aims that are
easy to achieve - in bite-size chunks. Manageable numbers of initiatives.
Finish current stages before starting new ones.
7.
Don't let up - Foster and encourage
determination and persistence - ongoing change - encourage ongoing progress
reporting - highlight achieved and future milestones.
8.
Make change stick - Reinforce the value of
successful change via recruitment, promotion, new change leaders. Weave change
into culture.
Steps 1 to 4 are about
mobilising and motivating people. Steps 7 and 8 are about seeing the changes
through and keeping momentum. Only steps 5 and 6 suggest any action and neither
propose what that action should be, only that there needs to be some.
There is a big difference
between having a time-table and having action. Kotters’ structure is excellent and
world famous, but it is also generic. It does address the Why (No1 Urgency) and
How (No2 Guiding
Team) but frankly empowering people to do
something is not going to bring change unless you are clear on which people and
what something: who; what; when; where.
For this reason I think it is
important to share examples of successful change which include this detail. If
you would like to share examples of who; what; when; where you have seen change
please contact me or contribute to this blog.
Tim Rogers
Founder ciChange
timrogers@ciChange.org
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/CI-Change-4301853
ciChange seminar and networking events for 2013 sponsored by
Total Solutions Group http://www.tsgi.co/
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