John Kotter has taught leadership courses at Harvard, and is known for an eight step process for bringing about change. These eight steps need to happen in the outlined outlined order. Here are the steps.
| Kotter's 8 steps | What I observed | |
| 1 | Create urgency | Curiosity/excitement/fear of management changes/new vision |
| 2 | Form a group of advocates | New hires under new management |
| 3 | Get the vision right | We can be the best... |
| 4 | Communicate to get buy in | Happened hour by hour |
| 5 | Empower action | Budgets/Autonomy were given |
| 6 | Create short term wins | ??? |
| 7 | Don’t give up | ??? |
| 8 | Work changes into the culture | This happened early in the process |
So, did it work? Many people are now onboard with some general dreams of improvement, but the division I mentioned still exists between those who were for the change, and those who were against it. In this example, three things diverged from Kotter's process:
- It is debatable if there were short term wins
- The short term wins that existed were not observed by everyone
- Overall culture changes happened to early (before the benefits were seen)
It would seem that for this case, John Kotter was correct. I believe that if the three points that diverged from Kotter's process were done as he outlined, the change would have been embraced by most people, and there would be no division.
Here are the takeaways:
- Short term wins are necessary
- They need to be seen by everyone
- Culture can't change until they come
Make sure these steps don't go awry, and you'll see your changes take place with the lowest amount of pushback.
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