“Let’s just wait for this initiative to fail. It will…just like the rest!”
“This new way just won’t work.”
“We don’t have the time to learn something new…
The customer is going to suffer.”
“I don’t know what they expect me to do!”
“I don’t know why we needed to change this anyway.”
…Heard any of this before? Change initiatives, no matter what their size, can attract amazing amounts of resistance from staff. The good news…the reason they’re resisting is well known...and the reason why your change initiative will likely fail is also well known.
John Kotter’s approach to change management was developed by studying why change efforts in organizations fail. His research distilled eight disastrous mistakes organizations make that paralyzes the impetus of change. These errors became the eight steps of Kotter’s change management approach. The next time you ‘change’…adhere to these steps.
Step 1: Establish a sense of urgency by clearly communicating the driving forces behind the organizational change and the consequences of inaction.
Step 2: Form a powerful, well functioning team to lead the change effort.
Step 3: Create a communicable vision of the future organization that can be understood by all stakeholders.
Step 4: Communicate and over-communicate the vision. The leadership team should be demonstrating the change - not just asserting the change.
Step 5: Clear the path and empower others to act on the vision.
Step 6: Create and celebrate short-term wins.
Step 7: Keep Changing! Tackle other systems and structures that undermine or hinder the complete evolution of the change effort.
Step 8: Connect the success derived from the change effort to the new behaviours, attitudes and activities of the employees. Engrain the change effort by ensuring successive leadership embodies the new approach and vision.
Kotter’s eight step plan follows a cultural revitalization model (developed in 1956) that is considered a “powerful, universal formula for culture change, whether in a whole society or an organization, for groups that are threatened by forces with which their traditional cultural norms cannot cope.” (Phelan, 2005, pg.47)
Follow Kotter’s eight step plan and most will agree,
“The new way is better!”
References:
Kotter, J.P. (2007). Leading Change: Why Transformational Efforts Fail. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from www.hbr.org.
Phelan, M.W. 2005. Cultural Revitalization Movements in Organization Change Management. Journal of Change Management. Vol. 5, No.1, Pg.47-56.
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