Customer Reviews
Don't Fear Change. - By: Andrew Moules, 19 Oct 2007 
A fantastic book on how to make necessary changein an organization by overcoming the inertia of "doing things the way they've always been done." I constantly run through the 8 stepsin my mind when I am thinking about ways to help all of us continue to align our people to new ideas or more effective field strategies.
A good start, just the beginning - By: Mr. S. D. Neale, 03 Oct 2007 
How many change initiatives have gone horribly wrong, most according to research. This book is a start, a good start into the field & a very big field indeed. It is still contemporary, easy to read & digest & doesn't try to get into the minutia, the eight stage strategy should be taken as a plausible logical approach which has a higher chance of working than most efforts we see. Don't do what many managers do & come running back from corporate leadership seminars all fired up thinking this book will solve everthing.
Of at least of one thing we can be sure of, Change Management is incredibly difficult (Kanter et al 1992) to make sense of. Always challenging & impossibly confusing though paradoxically now with many elements well researched by agents buriedin the strata of academia, consultancy & change. And yet, frequently more than fifty percent (Kotter 1996) of all change initiatives fail.
Go on to read stuff from Hope-Hailey, Senge, Kanter, Schein & Beer & Noria & then the complexities begin to show.
Insight into the world of Change - By: Stephen Parry, 27 May 2007 One of the best books on strategic change resistance & gaining sponsorship you will ever read. I have used & continue to use the eight step framework for all my change programmes.
Well written, easy to read & practical.
Packed with Knowledge! - By: Rolf Dobelli, 24 Jun 2005 The picture on the cover of John P. Kotter's book tells it all: a group of penguins are shuffling their feet nervously on an icy precipice, while one brave bird leaps for the water below. The question is, which penguin are you? In too many organizations, executives shy away from the precipice, while someone lower downin the pecking order jumpsin to test the landing conditions. Kotter says managers & leaders are quite different. A manager, he explains, is trained to thinkin a linear, one-two-three, risk-limiting way. Transformational change, however, can only be attained when true leaders push forward on several fronts at once - eight of them to be exact. Every successful change initiative begins with a coalition of leaders who create a sense of urgency. Kotter's book stems from a 1995 Harvard Business Review article titled, "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail." It will probably sound hauntingly familiar to managers who have watched change initiatives beginin the front courtyard with a marching band & end a few months later, ushered out the back door like a diner who can't pay the tab. If you want to know why your last change initiative fizzled, we say read this book. Better yet, study it to ensure that your next leap of faith is a flying success.
The leading change process model - By: Peter Leerskov, 12 Jan 2005 Organisations need change. We all know that. But how can an organisation adopt great ideas, tools, & methods, absorbing themin a way to stimulate change & get superior results?
Harvard-professor John P. Kotter has been observing this process for almost 30 years. What intrigues him is why some leaders are able to take these tools & methods & get their organizations to change dramatically - while most do not.
How many times have we not seen somebody get very excited about some new tool (CRM, e-business, etc.)? Yet two years later there is no performance improvement at all. Often because most of the organisation has rejected the change needed to make it happen.
When people need to make big changes significantly & effectively, Kotter finds that there are generally eight basic things that must happen:
1. INSTILL A SENSE OF URGENCY. Identifying existing or potential crises or opportunities. Confronting reality,in the words of Execution-authors, Charan & Bossidy.
2. PICK A GOOD TEAM. Assembling a strong guiding coalition with enough power to lead the change effort. And make them work as a team, not a committee!
3. CREATE A VISION AND SUPPORTING STRATEGIES. We need a clear sense of purpose & direction. In less successful situations you generally find plans & budgets, but no vision & strategy; or the strategies are so superficial that they have no credibility.
4. COMMUNICATE. As many people as possible need to hear the mandate for change loud & clear, with messages sent out consistently & often. Forget the boring memos that nobody reads! Try using videos, speeches, kick-off meetings, workshopsin small units, etc. Also important is the teaching of new behaviours by the example of the guiding coalition
5. REMOVE OBSTACLES. Get rid of anything blocking change, like bosses stuckin the old ways or lack of information systems. Encourage risk-taking & non-traditional ideas, activities, & actions. Empowerment is moving obstacles out of peoples' way so they can make something happen, once they've got the vision clearin their heads.
6. CHANGE FAST. Little quick wins are essential for creating momentum & providing sufficient credibility to pat the hard-working people on the back & to diffuse the cynics. Remember to recognize & reward employees involvedin the improvements.
7. KEEP ON CHANGING. After change organizations get rolling & have some wins, they don't stop there. They go back & make wave after wave of other actions necessary for long-term, significant change. Successful change leaders don't drop the sense of urgency. On top of that, they are very systematic about figuring out all of the pieces they need to havein place before they declare victory.
8. MAKE CHANGE STICK. The last big step is nailing big change to the floor & making sure it sticks. And the way things stick is through culture. If you can create a totally new culture around some new way of managing, it will stay. It won't live on if it is dependent on one boss or a couple of enthusiastic people who will eventually move on.
We can divide these eight stepsin three main processes. The first four steps focus on de-freezing the organization. The next three steps make change happen. The last step re-freezes the organization on the next rung on the ladder.
I've personally used Kotter's change processin several e-business projects. It has helped me a lot. I highly recommend that you buy this easy-to-read & affordable book. Alternatively, read his Harvard Business Review article from Mar/Apr 1995 on the same subject.
Peter Leerskov,
MScin International Business (Marketing & Management) & Graduate Diplomain E-business
