CHANGE MODELS

John Kotter Steps 1&2

The essence of change

People change what they do, less because they are given analysis that shift their thinking than because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings.

8 steps process
The practice showed that successful large-scale change is a complex affair that happens in 8 stages:
Step 1: Create a sense of urgency among relevant people. Step 2: Put together a guiding team. Step 3: Create the vision and strategies of the change process. Step 4: Effectively communicate the vision and the strategies.

8 steps process (cont)

Step 5: Remove barriers to action. Step 6: Accomplish short-term wins. Step 7: Keep pushing for wave after wave of change until the work is done. Step 8: Create a new culture to make new behavior stick.

Step 1: Create a sense of urgency

The first step is to make sure sufficient people act with sufficient urgency. Four sets of behaviors commonly stop the launch of needed change: o Complacency driven by false pride or arrogance. o Inertia driven by the inertial forces. o Fear of unknown you cant make me move . o Pessimistic attitude leads to constant hesitation.

A true sense of urgency

When people have a true sense of urgency, they think that action on critical issues is needed now. Now means making real progress every single day. Critically important means challenges that are central to success or survival, winning or losing. Winners first make sure that a sufficient number of people feel a true sense of urgency to look for an organizations critical opportunities and hazards now.

Increase urgency
Methods of increasing urgency:
Concrete, visual information ( e.g. videos) A dramatic offering (not a dull speech about customer orientation) A real problem from the point of view of the customer (not managers opinion) Information that hit the emotions

Develop a change vision

How can you begin without knowing where you are going? One reason people start a change process with the creation and presentation of a recommendation is because they want clarity of direction.

Crises, burning platforms, fear

Because moving a mountain of an enterprise can be so hard, a crisis, externally forced or internally induced, can help. Forget trying to persuade them; light their pants on fire! Burning platforms force people to jump away from their comfortable positions. If fear is not converted into positive urgency can become a significant liability.

Im not powerful enough sensation

People understand the points about fear, anger, complacency, urgency and crises , yet do little to help start a change process. Im not the boss. Given all the constraints on my action, what can I do? The Im not powerful-enough sensation can be very strong, very debilitating and enormously frustrating.

Im not powerful enough sensation

Go after the emotions with concrete and some evidence, not just abstractions so favored by rational mind. Use evidence people can see, not just words and numbers. Create a dramatic, look at this presentation, yet one based on honest facts and no coercion.

Donts in a change management process

Focusing exclusively on building a rational business case, getting top management approval, and racing ahead while mostly ignoring all the feelings that are blocking change. Ignoring a lack of urgency and jumping to creating a vision and strategy Believing that without crisis or burning platforms you can go nowhere. Thinking that you can do little if youre not the head person.

Step 2:building the guiding team/ critical mass

A feeling of urgency helps putting together the right group to guide change and in creating essential teamwork within the group. When there is urgency, more people want to help provide leadership, even if there are personal risks.

Effective guiding team

An effective guiding team has two characteristics:
It is made up of the right people It demonstrates teamwork.

Right people = appropriate skills, the leadership capacity, the organizational credibility, the connections to handle a specific kind of organizational change.

Group vs. team

Effective guiding teams

1. A single individual who feels great urgency pulls in the first people. 2. Individuals are selected to have the right combination of capabilities:
Relevant knowledge about the organization Credibility, connections, and stature within the organization Formal authority and the managerial skills associated with planning, organizing and control. The leadership skills associated with vision, communication and motivation

Effective guiding team

3. Pulling people in and pushing people out

Pulling = showing others the importance of the effort and the privilege of being chosen. Pushing = taking steps to correct the problem, even if it means firing someone or performing other emotion-packed emotions.

4. Create additional groups at the lower levels guiding coalition, critical mass

Trust
The right group of people is necessary but insufficient, the group must also work together well. People will think of themselves or of their subgroups first and be protective and suspicious. Smart strategy does not emerge from a pond full of politics, parochialism and guarded communication.

Trust
Teamwork, and the underlying feeling of trust and emotional commitment to others, can be undercut by many factors:
Individuals who are not team players or trustworthy can destroy a group. The wrong format of meetings can increase frustrations and collapse trust Poor meeting structures hurt

If key players are not playing key roles in the guiding team, that usually means their sense of urgency is too low

Donts in a change management process

Guiding change with weak task force, single individuals, complex governance structures, or fragmented top teams. Not confronting the situation when momentum and entrenched power centers undermine the creation of the right group. Trying to leave out or work around the head of the unit to be changed because he or she is hopeless.