Leading Change: Making transformation work

John Kotter, a professor of leadership at the Harvard Business School said that “the most general lesson to be learned from the more successful cases is that the change process goes through a series of phases that, in total, usually require a considerable length of time.”

He pointed out that skipping steps creates only an illusion of speed and never produces meaningful results. And making mistakes in the process can produce devastating effects, slowing down the momentum and disregarding hard-won achievements.

Kotter summarizes the eight steps as follows:

* Establish a sense of urgency. Many successful change efforts start when some individuals or groups create urgency by looking hard at an organization’s competitive situation, market position, technological trends and financial performance. Without motivation, people won’t help-and the efforts go nowhere.

* Create a powerful guiding coalition. Change efforts often start with one or two committed people, and should grow continually to include more and more who believe that changes are necessary. This group helps bring in more on board with new ideas. The building of this coalition coupled with their sense of urgency, their sense of awareness on what’s going on and what needs to be done is vital.

* Create a vision. Successful transformation rests on having a clear vision of the future. A vision that is easy to communicate and appeals to the stakeholders. The vision works in different ways: It helps ignite motivation, keeps all projects and changes aligned, provides an avenue to evaluate how the organization is doing, and provide the rationale for the changes the organization will have to engage with.

* Communicate that vision. Leaders should know how much communication of the vision is needed, and then multiply the effort by a factor of ten. Leaders must ‘walk their talk’ if they want people to perceive their efforts as important. The bottom line is that a transformation is bound to fail unless all stakeholders understand, appreciate and commit to themselves to make the change happen. Without credible communication, the hearts and minds of the people are never captured.

* Lead others to act on the vision. Action is essential to empower others and to maintain the credibility of the change effort as a whole. Nothing is more disappointing than believing in the change but then not have the time, money, help, or support needed to realize it. Along the way, many obstacles will be met. You can’t totally eliminate all the obstacles, but the biggest ones need to be addressed head on.

* Plan for and create short-term wins. Since real transformation takes time, wavering of the momentum and the onset of disappointment are real. In successful transformation, leaders creatively plan and achieve short-term gains which people will be able to see and appreciate, and celebrate. Commitments to ensure short-term triumphs help keep the urgency alive. This provides proof that efforts are working, and adds to the motivation to keep the effort going.

* Consolidate improvements and keep the pace moving. Never declare victory too soon. A premature declaration of victory kills the momentum, thus allowing the powerful forces of tradition to regain control. Use the feeling of victory as a motivation to delve deeper into the organization, to explore changes to the culture, to fine tune systems, to inspire people to newer and higher heights of action. Change leaders must go into the process of thinking that their efforts will take years to accomplish.

* Institutionalize the new systems or approaches. In the ultimate analysis, the fruit of the pudding is in the eating. Show people how the new approaches, behaviors and attitudes have helped improve performance. Change sticks when it becomes a part of our everyday life. Until new behaviors are observed and rooted in social norms and shared values, they are subject to degradation as soon as the pressure for changed is removed.