John Paul Kotter
John Paul Kotter (born 1947) is a former professor at the Harvard Business School, an acclaimed author, and Chief Innovation Officer at Kotter International. He is regarded as an authority on leadership and change. Kotter created the Eights Steps to Change Model that is currently the most widely-used framework for managing organizational change. In his observations, Kotter concluded that the organizations that are the most successful in implementing change go through the following series of eight steps.
The Eight Steps
1. Increase urgency: Managers must inspire people to move, make objectives real and relevant, and further their desire to make change happen. Getting momentum for change is key.
2. Build the guiding team: The company must get the right people in place as leaders with the right emotional commitment and understanding and the right mix of skills and levels.
3. Get the vision right: Managers must get the team to establish a simple vision and strategy and then focus on the emotional and creative aspects necessary to drive service and efficiency.
4. Communicate for buy-in: Involving as many people as possible, managers must communicate the essentials and appeal and respond to people's needs. Additionally, they must remove clutter and streamline technological communications, making it efficient rather than overwhelming for employees.
5. Empower action: This step removes obstacles wherever possible, enables constructive feedback, and garners support from leaders—complete with motivational rewards that recognize progress and achievements.
6. Create short-term wins: Managers must set aims that are easy to achieve in manageable chunks. They must also manage the number of initiatives taking place at once and finish current stages before starting new ones.
Short-term wins
A step in Kotter's model of change is to celebrate short-term wins while working toward an overall goal of change.
7. Don't let up: Managers must foster and encourage determination, persistence, and ongoing progress reporting. This can be done by highlighting achieved and future milestones.
8. Make change stick: This step reinforces the value of successful change via recruitment, promotion, and new change leaders. The company should change a fundamental part of the culture during this step so people do not consider it as foreign.
By following these eight steps to successful change, managers can work to mitigate the risks associated with changes that employees do not like. In order to reduce potential organizational obstacles, managers have to make sure that all of their employees are on board with the change and are willing to assist with it.