Leading change by John Kotter provides a couple of processes that organizations can use to achieve the set goals. Apart from organizations, these processes can also be used by individuals; whether they are leaders or not. More to it, the author has also outlined where and how the top performers fail during the process of changing. He has also provided practical resources for individuals that are charged with the responsibilities of ensuring the needed change is pursued. To avoid failure and disappointment when effecting changes the author has provided a number of steps that are effective. According to Jung (2013), changes for organizations can be caused by market, political, or even social factors. Some of the factors that can cause need for change in an organization can be either external or internal forces. In the first chapter, the author has noted down some of the errors that are made by organizations during the implementation of any changes. These errors are, usually, why the needed changes or being implemented end up hitting a dead end. The first error is allowing too much complacency. This error occurs when a manager or any individual wanting to make a change fails to establish a high enough sense of urgency with fellow employees and managers.
When a change is needed urgently, the manager or individual in charge should consult his fellow managers and employees so as to get their opinion and help in helping bring the change into a life. Personally, an individual should consult his or her closest friends and relatives for help. The second error that is, usually, done is failing to create a sufficient guiding coalition. It means that one needs to get a team of workmates that have the right qualities of seeing the change come to life. One individual cannot make it because no one is perfect, and thus, one cannot have all the qualities needed for any project or change to manifest. The third error is underestimating the power of vision. The teams need a sensible vision because vision, usually, plays a major role in producing useful change. It does this by helping direct, align and inspire actions to the people involved and those interested. If the vision is not clear or appropriate, the change will then lead to confusion, incompatibility and will also be time-consuming. The forth error involves under-communication of the vision. It doesn’t matter whether the vision is under-communicated a factor of 10 or 100. What matters is that the change is communicated to all the employees.
Employees in the organization should be made aware of the changes that are facing the organization. The fact that some of the employees may not be onboard with the change vision should not be an excuse to not communicating these ideas. If communication is not done, capturing the hearts and minds of the employees will be a difficult task, and the chances of making the change effective will go down the drain. The fifth error involves permitting obstacles to block the vision. The organization structure might the obstacle (Kotte, 1996). Any obstacles should be dealt with as they will kill down the whole project. The sixth error is failure to create a short-term win/s. Since a real transformation will take time, short-term goals and wins should be available so as to encourage employees to keep working on the project. People tend to lose faith when they see no positive outcomes with a period of six months or so. Any short-term wins will help in keeping the faith and encouraging them. Short-term wins should, however, not slowdown the productivity or efforts of the employees and anyone else working on the changes. They should also not be long-term wins but as stepping stones towards the achievements of the long-term wins. The number seven error is declaration of victory way too soon or early (Kotter, 1996). Even if the long-term change is achieved, and celebrations are done, it is, usually, advisable for work on the change to continue to keep strengthening it. Unless the changes have sunk deep down into the culture of the organization, it is a terrible idea to call it quits. The final mistake is failing to anchor changes in the corporate culture. After implementing the change into the organizations cultures, the team in charge should ensure that the change is anchored firmly into the culture. Else it will fail.
The second chapter of this book deals with forces that drive successful change. If there have been difficulties, failures and or betrayals in the past, it is usually very difficult for individuals to accept changes and people that try to effect changes. To ensure that the changes are good for the individual or an organization, a number of steps need to be followed to the letter. For organizations, these steps are effective because the markets have changed overtime due to globalization and improved technology. In case there are any changes in between the first changes, they might be undertaken especially if they are meant to save the major change. It is also very important for the involved parties to differentiate between management and leadership. Management of the changes is very important as it helps the transformation of the process to prevent it from derailing. Most organizations, however, face difficulties in leading the change. Leadership involves influence and being a change agent (Bertocci, 2009). It means that for one to be a leader they should be in a position to affect the behavior and performance of other individuals. Management includes responsibility of organizing, planning, controlling, budgeting, staffing, problem-solving among many others. A good manager must be capable of all these. A leader can also make a very good manager.
The third chapter of this book involves detailed scrutiny of the eight stages towards successful changes. These steps are also for individuals. They are not meant only for organizations. The first step involves establishment of a sense of emergency, meaning that the person needing the change should help others within the organization realizes the need for that change. Second, one needs to create a guiding coalition. This process involves assembling a group that has enough power to lead the change plus encourage individuals involved in the process to work together as a team. The third step involves the development of a change vision. Developing a change vision involves creating a vision that helps in directing the change effort and developing strategies that can be used in achieving the change. The forth step involves communicating the vision with the buy-in. To help direct the change effort, the person in charge should create a method through which every individual involved in this process is educated and helped understand and accept the vision and the strategies to be used. Fifth, broad-based actions should empower by removal of all obstacles that can affect the change effort. Systems and structures that seriously undermine the operation should also be eliminated and risk-taking and nontraditional ideas, actions and activities should be highly recommended or encouraged. The sixth step involves generation of short-term wins. This means that plans should be laid out for achievements that can be made visible easily. Follow up should also be done to help determine whether these achievements are working or not. Individuals involved in the process should be rewarded for their good work and effort.
The seventh step is never letting up. Never letting up means use of increased credibility to change structures, systems and policies that do not fit with the vision. If there are no available individuals that can help in seeing the change through, hiring of individuals that are capable of doing so should be an option. The final and eighth step is incorporation of the changes into the culture. Connections between the new behaviors and organization success should be articulated and means ensuring leadership development and success should be developed. These steps are establishing a sense of urgency, creating the guiding coalition, developing a vision and strategy, communicating the change vision, empowering broad-based actions, creating short-term wins, consolidating wins and producing more change and finally, anchoring new approaches in the culture. The first four stages of this process help in defrosting the most difficult status quo. The fifth, sixth and seventh steps deal with the introduction of new practices. The last step helps in grounding the changes into the organizations culture and ensuring that they stick. It is important for the steps to be followed in sequence as altering them can create problems for the process. Personally, all of these steps had been very effective when it came to changes. Some of the issues that needed to be changed in life needed to be well calculated, no matter how urgent they were. Having a vision or an idea of where I need to be when I have done the necessary changes in my life has helped. One of the changes has involved ensuring I have a better future and a career. The change was a little difficult especially in coping with college life and getting internships and on-school jobs. But the thought of a better future and a professional job were and are still motivating.
In conclusion, changes are can be very difficult to adapt for any individual or organization for that matter. The above steps needs to be followed to the letter so as to ensure the changes will be effective and become part of the organizations culture. The errors that can also prevent the changes from taking place should also be watched out for, and the management or the team in charge of the changes should ensure these obstacles are kept at bay.
References
Bertocci, D. I. (2009). Leadership in organizations: there is a difference between leaders and
managers. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America.
Jung, C. (2013). Importance of change management in organisations. S.l.: Grin Verlag.
Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading change. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press.
