Kotter’s eight steps to transforming your organization (Organizational change) form a comprehensive guide to tackling the process of change. Kotter says that good leaders must get all eight steps right. However, he predicts that the process will be a great deal easier if groundwork is done well.
In Leading Change (1996), Kotter describes some of the actions a leader needs to take during all eight steps. In Kotter’s recommended actions for the first four change steps we give some of Kotter’s suggestions for the first four steps, as they seem to necessitate the most direct action from the leader.
Kotter’s recommended actions for the first four change steps
Kotter’s step
Recommended actions
1. Establishing a sense of urgency
Push up the urgency level. Create a crisis by exposing issues rather than protecting people from them. Send more data to people about customer satisfaction, especially where weaknesses are demonstrated. Encourage more honest discussion of these issues.
2. Creating the guiding coalition
Include enough main line managers, enough relevant expertise, enough people with good credibility and reputation in the organization and enough ability to lead. Avoid big egos and snakes (who engender distrust). Talk a lot together, build trust and build a common goal.
3. Developing a vision and strategy
Vision building is a messy, difficult and sometimes emotionally charged exercise. Take time to do the process properly and expect it to take months. It is never achieved in a single meeting.
4. Communicating the change vision
Keep the communication simple and use metaphor and analogy. Creativity is necessary to ensure that many different forms of communication are used to repeat the message, including leading by example. Use two-way discussions and listen to the feedback.