Leading Change

by John P. Kotter

The material in this book is not only still relevant now, sixteen years after it was published, but I believe it is more relevant, and for one simple reason: the speed of change continues to increase.

As a result, more and more organizations will be pushed to reduce costs, improve the quality of products and services, locate new opportunities for growth, and increase productivity.

This error is fatal because transformations always fail to achieve their objectives when complacency levels are high.

Smart individuals like Adrien fail to create sufficient urgency at the beginning of a business transformation for many different but interrelated reasons.

Vision plays a key role in producing useful change by helping to direct, align, and inspire actions on the part of large numbers of people.

A useful rule of thumb: Whenever 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.

Three patterns of ineffective communication are common, all driven by habits developed in more stable times.

In the first,

In the second pattern,

In the third pattern,

Communication comes in both words and deeds. The latter is generally the most powerful form. Nothing undermines change more than behavior by important individuals that is inconsistent with the verbal communication.

Occasionally, the roadblocks are only in people’s heads and the challenge is to convince them that no external barriers exist.

Whenever smart and well-intentioned people avoid confronting obstacles, they disempower employees and undermine change.

Eight errors common to organizational change efforts and their consequences

Vision refers to a picture of the future with some implicit or explicit commentary on why people should strive to create that future.