Leading Change Quotes

“transformation is a process, not an event”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“Management makes a system work. It helps you do what you know how to do. Leadership builds systems or transforms old ones.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“Nothing undermines change more than behavior by important individuals that is inconsistent with the verbal communication.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“If you cannot describe your vision to someone in five minutes and get their interest, you have more work to do in this phase of a transformation process.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“Whenever smart and well-intentioned people avoid confronting obstacles, they disempower employees and undermine change.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“Management is a set of processes that can keep a complicated system of people and technology running smoothly. The most important aspects of management include planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, controlling, and problem solving. Leadership is a set of processes that creates organizations in the first place or adapts them to significantly changing circumstances. Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“Employees in large, older firms often have difficulty getting a transformation process started because of the lack of leadership coupled with arrogance, insularity, and bureaucracy.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“Bureaucratic cultures can smother those who want to respond to shifting conditions.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“Empowering people to effect change • Communicate a sensible vision to employees: If employees have a shared sense of purpose, it will be easier to initiate actions to achieve that purpose. • Make structures compatible with the vision: Unaligned structures block needed action. • Provide the training employees need: Without the right skills and attitudes, people feel disempowered. • Align information and personnel systems to the vision: Unaligned systems also block needed action. • Confront supervisors who undercut needed change: Nothing disempowers people the way a bad boss can.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“The steps are: establishing a sense of urgency, creating the guiding coalition, developing a vision and strategy, communicating the change vision, empowering a broad base of people to take action, generating short-term wins, consolidating gains and producing even more change, and institutionalizing new approaches in the culture.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“Imagine the following. Three groups of ten individuals are in a park at lunchtime with a rainstorm threatening. In the first group, someone says: “Get up and follow me.” When he starts walking and only a few others join in, he yells to those still seated: “Up, I said, and now!” In the second group, someone says: “We’re going to have to move. Here’s the plan. Each of us stands up and marches in the direction of the apple tree. Please stay at least two feet away from other group members and do not run. Do not leave any personal belongings on the ground here and be sure to stop at the base of the tree. When we are all there . . .” In the third group, someone tells the others: “It’s going to rain in a few minutes. Why don’t we go over there and sit under that huge apple tree. We’ll stay dry, and we can have fresh apples for lunch.” I am sometimes amazed at how many people try to transform organizations using methods that look like the first two scenarios: authoritarian decree and micromanagement. Both approaches have been applied widely in enterprises over the last century, but mostly for maintaining existing systems, not transforming those systems into something better. When the goal is behavior change, unless the boss is extremely powerful, authoritarian decree often works poorly even in simple situations, like the apple tree case. Increasingly, in complex organizations, this approach doesn’t work at all. Without the power of kings and queens behind it, authoritarianism is unlikely to break through all the forces of resistance. People will ignore you or pretend to cooperate while doing everything possible to undermine your efforts. Micromanagement tries to get around this problem by specifying what employees should do in detail and then monitoring compliance. This tactic can break through some of the barriers to change, but in an increasingly unacceptable amount of time. Because the creation and communication of detailed plans is deadly slow, the change produced this way tends to be highly incremental. Only the approach used in the third scenario above has the potential to break through all the forces that support the status quo and to encourage the kind of dramatic shifts found in successful transformations. (See figure 5–1.) This approach is based on vision—a central component of all great leadership.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“The typical goal that binds individuals together on guiding change coalitions is a commitment to excellence, a real desire to make their organizations perform to the very highest levels possible. Reengineering, acquisitions, and cultural change efforts often fail because that desire is missing. Instead, one finds people committed to their own departments, divisions, friends, or careers.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“When people fail to develop the coalition needed to guide change, the most common reason is that down deep they really don’t think a transformation is necessary or they don’t think a strong team is needed to direct the change. Skill at team building is rarely the central problem.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“A guiding coalition made up only of managers—even superb managers who are wonderful people—will cause major change efforts to fail.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“Without short-term wins, too many employees give up or actively join the resistance. Creating”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“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. Error”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“Major change is often said to be impossible unless the head of the organization is an active supporter.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“In successful transformations, the president, division general manager, or department head plus another five, fifteen, or fifty people with a commitment to improved performance pull together as a team. This group rarely includes all of the most senior people because some of them just won’t buy in, at least at first. But in the most successful cases, the coalition is always powerful—in terms of formal titles, information and expertise, reputations and relationships, and the capacity for leadership. Individuals alone, no matter how competent or charismatic, never have all the assets needed to overcome tradition and inertia except in very small organizations. Weak committees are usually even less effective.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“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.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“In many cases, clever design of educational experiences can deliver greater impact at one-half or less the cost of conventional approaches. I also think that training can easily become a disempowering experience if the implicit message is “shut up and do it this way” instead of “we will be delegating more, so we are providing this course to help you with your new responsibilities.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“At senior levels in most organizations, people have large egos. But unless they also have a realistic sense of their weaknesses and limitations, unless they can appreciate complementary strengths in others, and unless they can subjugate their immediate interests to some greater goal, they will probably contribute about as much to a guiding coalition as does nuclear waste. If such a person is the central player in the coalition, you can usually kiss teamwork and a dramatic transformation good-bye.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“In a less competitive and slower-moving world, weak committees can help organizations adapt at an acceptable rate. A committee makes recommendations. Key line managers reject most of the ideas. The group offers additional suggestions. The line moves another inch. The committee tries again. When both competition and technological change are limited, this approach can work. But in a faster-moving world, the weak committee always fails.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“We need to become less like an elephant and more like a customer-friendly Tyrannosaurus rex”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“Sensing the difficulty in producing change, some people try to manipulate events quietly behind the scenes and purposefully avoid any public discussion of future direction.”
― Harvard Business Review Press, Leading Change

“Speed of change is the driving force. Leading change competently is the only answer.”
― Harvard Business Review Press, Leading Change

“good short-term win has at least these three characteristics: 1. It’s visible; large numbers of people can see for themselves whether the result is real or just hype. 2. It’s unambiguous; there can be little argument over the call. 3. It’s clearly related to the change effort.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“Most complex skills emerge over decades, which is why we increasingly talk about “lifelong learning.” Because we spend so many of our waking hours at work, most of our development takes place—or doesn’t take place—on the job. This simple fact has enormous implications. If our time at work encourages and helps us to develop leadership skills, we will eventually realize whatever potential we have. Conversely, if time at work does little or nothing to develop those skills, we will probably never live up to our potential.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“A guiding coalition with good managers but poor leaders will not succeed. A managerial mindset will develop plans, not vision; it will vastly undercommunicate the need for and direction of change; and it will control rather than empower people.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“Failure here is usually associated with underestimating the difficulties in producing change and thus the importance of a strong guiding coalition.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

“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.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change