Leading Change

by John P. Kotter

you cannot describe the vision driving a change initiative in five minutes or less and get a reaction that signifies both understanding and interest, you are in for trouble.

Nothing undermines change more than behavior by important individuals that is inconsistent with the verbal communication.

In a successful transformation, managers actively look for ways to obtain clear performance improvements, establish goals in the yearly planning system, achieve these objectives, and reward the people involved with recognition, promotions, or money. In change initiatives that fail, systematic effort to guarantee unambiguous wins within six to eighteen months is much less common.

One bad succession decision at the top of an organization can undermine a decade of hard work.

One simple question—is this in line with the vision?—can help eliminate hours, days, or even months of torturous discussion.

If you cannot describe your vision to someone in five minutes and get their interest, you have more work to do

in the long run, swallowing our pride and reworking the vision is far more productive than heading off in the wrong direction—or in a direction that others won’t follow.

Charismatic leaders are often poor managers, yet they have a way of convincing us that all we need to do is follow them.

Culture changes only after you have successfully altered people’s actions, after the new behavior produces some group benefit for a period of time, and after people see the connection between the new actions and the performance improvement.

Changing culture should generally not be the first step

Whenever you hear of a major restructuring, reengineering, or strategic redirection in which step 1 is “changing the culture,” you should be concerned that it might be going down the wrong path.

Highly controlling organizations often destroy leadership by not allowing people to blossom, test themselves, and grow.