Lead Change

Professor John Kotter of the Harvard Business School has produced a research-based model for leading major organizational change (1996). Success in his view depends on the implementation of an eight-step process.

The stages, all of which need to be followed sequentially, are as follows:

  1. Create a sense of urgency.
  2. Put together a team of people to lead the change.
  3. Create a vision of the desired outcome and formulate strategies for achieving it.
  4. Communicate the desired outcome and strategies.
  5. Empower people, throughout, to remove obstacles and implement ideas to improve performance.
  6. Identify and reward early benefits.
  7. Consolidate gains and produce more change.
  8. Weld the new approaches into the firm’s culture.