Most of the corporate change efforts that fail -- Mostly fall off somewhere in between. The most general lesson to be learned from the more successful cases is that the change process goes through a series of phases that, in total, usually require a considerable length of time. Skipping steps creates only the illusion of speed and never produces a satisfying result. A second very general lesson is that critical mistakes in any of the phases can have a devastating impact, slowing momentum and negating hard-won gains. Perhaps because we have relatively little experience in renewing organizations, even very capable people often make at least one big error.
Perhaps nobody understands the anatomy of organizational change better than retired Harvard Business School professor John P. Kotter.
According to Kotter, Leaders who successfully transform businesses avoid the following 8 errors (and they do them in the right order).
It will feel familiar when you read it, in part because Kotter’s vocabulary has entered the lexicon and in part because it contains the kind of home truths that we recognize, immediately, as if we’d always known them. But the following commandants, on leading change will always remain definitive.
- Error 1: Not Establishing a Great Enough Sense of Urgency
- Error 2: Not Creating a Powerful Enough Guiding Coalition
- Error 3: Lacking a Vision
- Error 4: Undercommunicating the Vision
- Error 5: Not Removing Obstacles to the New Vision
- Error 6: Not Systematically Planning for, and Creating, Short-Term Wins
- Error 7: Declaring Victory Too Soon
- Error 8: Not Anchoring Changes in the Corporation’s Culture
(Courtesy: John P Kotter)
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