Leading Change

What happens when an organization needs to change (if it hopes to be successful in the future) but hasn't put much thought into what the process of change itself looks like? More than likely: failure.John Kotter outlines here a critical difference between change efforts that have been successful, compared to change efforts that have failed. Drawing on decades' worth of experience consulting with firms and coaching leaders, and attentive to ever-increasing globalization of markets and competition, Kotter offers an eight-stage change process. The eight stages are:1. Establishing a sense of urgency2. Creating the guiding coalition3. Developing a vision and strategy4. Communicating the change vision5. Empowering broad-based action6. Generating short-term wins7. Consolidating gains and producing more change8. Anchoring new approaches in the cultureSuccessful change, Kotter argues, "is 70 to 90 percent leadership and only 10 to 30 percent management. Yet for historical reasons, many organizations today don't have much leadership." Kotter articulates what effective leadership -- not management -- actually looks like.Kotter provides a helpful, clear, and concise chapter devoted to each of the eight stages. He articulates precisely what is needed at each critical moment in the transformation process. He provides numerous examples of what happens when any stage is ignored (basically, he suggests that to ignore any of the eight stages will likely lead to failure). Specific guidance and steps are offered at every point along the way. A useful summary of the whole process is provided on page 21.The final couple chapters provide a glimpse into the organizations and leaders of the future. "The rate of change in the business world is not going to slow down anytime soon. . . . The typical twentieth-century organization has not operated well in a rapidly changing environment. . . . If environmental continues to increase, as most people now predict, the standard organization of the twentieth century will likely become a dinosaur." The winning enterprise of the twenty-first century will have a persistent sense of urgency, teamwork at the top, people who can create and communicate vision, broad-based empowerment, delegated management for excellent short-term performance, no unnecessary interdependence, and an adaptive corporate culture. Leaders of the future are going to be people with high standards and a strong willingness to learn. Arguing that leadership traits can be learned, Kotter provides examples of people he has known over an extended period of time who once upon a time showed little promise, but who developed superlative leadership skills and have become highly effective, successful, influential leaders. Just as organizations need to continue to continue to change and grow, so too will organizations' future leaders.Overall, this is a highly readable, useful book. It is obviously useful for leaders in the corporate world. I would argue that it is also highly useful for leaders in ANY organization that is trying to thrive in the twenty-first century. I wish I had read it years ago!

This book may have been written over 10 years ago, but the information is relevant. Kotter understood how organizations and the workplace were changing, and he has great strategies for how to adapt.This book is a great contribution to ongoing learning.

Leading Change from Kotter is one of the classics on modern change management and it is a pretty good book. Though, definitively not perfect and it does, in my opinion, have a bit a 'traditional management' taste to it. But, well, as that is probably practices in the majority of the companies, I can't blame this book for it.Leading change is fairly short, a bit less than 200 pages. It consists of 3 different parts: 1) The change problem and its solution (or it could be called "overview"), 2) The eight-stage process, 3) Implication for the twenty-first century.The first part consists of 2 small chapters. The first cover why organizations fail with their change efforts and it provides eight mistakes (which is basically the reverse of his later proposal). In the second chapter, Kotter introduces his 8-step change process for managing change in an organization.The eight steps are also the eight chapters of part 2. They are:- Establish a Sense of Urgency- Creating a Guiding Coalition- Developer a Vision and Strategy- Communicating the Change Vision- Empowering Employees for Broad-Based Action- Generating Short-Term Wins- Consolidating Gains and Producing More Change- Anchoring New Approaches in the Culture.Each of the chapters in Part 2 describe the change step, why it is needed and give some advise and stories about the change.The third and last chapter speculated about the future and how change is becoming more and more important.All in all, the book was actually pretty good (better than I had expected, as I was familiar with the basic content already). It is well-written and in quite a convincing way. I did get uncomfortable at times, these were mainly about 3 assumptions that I felt throughout the book. 1) The enormous focus on 'leadership' which, I believe, somewhat misses the point of building an environment in which all people flourish (and yes, you might say the leader does it, but why not all people? Isn't it just caring?). 2) A lot of focus on "top-down" change rather than grass-roots change and with it a lot of focus on traditional management roles, and 3) A lot of focus on BIG change efforts over many small ones (many small ones is more a Kaizen spirit). It felt in line with the "big project" and "re-engineering" thinking rather than the view of gradual change. Anyways, all three of these are to be expected and as the book has a clear focus/audience, it doesn't matter too much.Thus, a good book on traditional change management and worst reading from that perspective. It wasn't an *aha* book for me, it was just good. For that reason, I'll stick with 4 stars. Pretty good.

I was somewhat concerned that this book might be outdated, but I was wrong. Great read. Easy to follow. My brain is firing on all cylinders as I evaluate where to start with my organization.

Quality Books.

In "Leading Change," John Kotter presents an eight-step process for effective organizational change, which includes creating a sense of urgency, forming a strong coalition, crafting and communicating a clear vision, removing obstacles, achieving short-term wins, consolidating gains, and embedding new approaches into the culture.Kotter’s framework is particularly relevant in today's fast-paced business environment. It helps organizations stay agile, fosters collaboration, provides clear direction, maintains momentum, and ensures lasting cultural integration. This structured approach is invaluable for leaders aiming to navigate and succeed in the face of constant change.