THE HEART OF CHANGE

- JOHN P. KOTTER & DAN S. COHEN

LEARNINGS
Successful organisations know how to overcome resistance to change
Grab opportunities, avoid hazards
Make big leaps

Eight stages of change

Urgency, put together a guiding team, create the vision, communicate the vision, remove
barriers to action, accomplish short-term wins, keep pushing for change, and create a new
culture

Changing peoples behaviour

Not strategy, not systems, not culture

Influence peoples feelings

the heart of change is in the emotions

8 STEPS OF CHANGE
Increase urgency
Build the guiding team
Get the vision right
Communicate for buy-in
Empower action
Create short-term wins
Dont let up
Make change stick

PATTERN ASSOCIATED WITH SUCCESSFUL

CHANGE

SEE

FEEL
CHANGE

STEP 1 INCREASE URGENCY

STEP 1 INCREASE URGENCY

Complacency

Immobilization
You-cant-make-me-move

Off to a bad start

Pessimistic attitude

OFF TO A GOOD START

Seeing - Establish
credibility
Feeling - Surprise,
fear, urgency
Changing Shift in
behaviour

STEP 2 BUILD THE GUIDING TEAM

THE SECOND STEP IN MAKING YOUR

CHANGE SUCCESSFUL
Helping pull together the right group of people with the right characteristics and sufficient
power to drive the change effort
Helping them to behave with trust and emotional commitment to one another.
Help form a group that has the capability in membership and method of operating to
guide a very difficult change process.

WHAT WORKS
Showing enthusiasm or commitment (or helping someone to do so) to help draw the
right people into the group.
Modelling the trust and teamwork needed in the group (or helping someone to do that)
Structuring meeting formats for the guiding team so as to minimise frustration and
increase trust
Putting your energy into step 1 (raising urgency) if you cannot take on the step 2
challenge and if the right people will not

WHAT DOES NOT WORK

Guiding change with weak task forces, single individuals, complex governance
structures, or fragmented top teams
Not confronting the situation when momentum and entrenched power centres undermine
the creation of the right group
Trying to leave out work or work around the head of the unit to be changed because he
or she is hopeless

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES

The Blues Vs. The Greens
Meetings Down under

STEP 3 GET THE VISION RIGHT

GET THE VISION RIGHT

Guiding teams-No clear direction or embrace vision
Catastrophic for Organization
Charting the future
Large scale change
Planning exercise

PAINTING PICTURES OF THE FRAME

Deregulation and liberalization
Diversified Conglomerate

Orthodox Planning Process

Incremental Change
Planning and Budgeting

GRAPPLE THE PROBLEM

Carry on business as usual
Limited growth Opportunities
Retrench and batten down the hatches
Series of meetings
Magnitude of the Changes

FORMAL DISCUSSIONS
Multiutility

New Alternatives
Summary of the options

Testing the
Conclusion

Triple the size of the

company
Consensus on the
vision

PROCESS
Seeing

Feeling

Changing

LARGE SCALE CHANGE

Budget, Plans ,Strategies and Vision
Budgeting- A math exercise
Planning-Logical and linear Process
Strategizing-Conceptual Skills
Venturing into unknown territory

EFFICIENCY VERSUS SERVICE

Innovation and Customer Service
Fear, anger and Cynicism grow
Service Oriented Visions

COST VERSUS SERVICE

Streamlining the Organization
Funding inefficiencies
Removing impediments
Duplicative Practices
Purchase of new technology

BOLD STRATEGIES
Industry leader
Small modifications in culture
Strategic need for speed
Corrosive effect
Move-quick Strategy

NEW VISION
Trying to seeliterallypossible futures
Visions being Clear
Visions-Commitment

Strategies Bold Vision

Paying careful attention

STEP 4 COMMUNICATE FOR BUY-IN

CHANGE IS WIDELY COMMUNICATED

FOR UNDERSTANDING & FOR GUT
LEVEL BUY- IN
More than data transfer
Cutting through the Avalanche of
Information
Matching Works & Deeds
New Technologies

MORE THAN DATA TRANSFER

PREPARING FOR Q&A

SEE

FEEL
CHANGE

CUTTING THROUGH THE AVALANCHE

OF INFORMATION

MY PORTAL

MATCHING WORDS & DEEDS

NUKING THE EXECUTIVE FLOOR

NEW TECHNOLOGIES
THE SCREEN SAVER

What Works?

What Doesn't Work?

Keep
communicating
simple
&heartfelt
not
complex
&
technocratic
Do
homework
before
communicating
especially
to
understand feelings of people
Speaking to anxieties, confusions &
distrust
Ridding communication channels of
junk so that important messages
can go through
Use new technologies to help
people see the vision

Under
communicating
which
happens all the time
Speaking as though you are only
transferring information
Accidently fostering cynicism by not
walking the talk

STEP 5 EMPOWER ACTION

 It is not about giving people new authority and new

responsibilities and then walking away.

It is all about removing barriers.

Empowerment is not giving people power, people already have plenty of power,
in the wealth of their knowledge and motivation, to do their jobs magnificently. We
define empowerment as letting this power out - Blanchard. K

REMOVING THE BOSS BARRIER

Subordinates either give up or spend an inordinate amount of time trying to
maneuver around this barrier.
Retooling the Boss From Tim Wallace
Superintendent Old School Joe
Stint at the customers plant
Transformation of a change resistor into a best manager

RETOOLING THE BOSS

Seeing

Changing

Feeling

REMOVING THE SYSTEM BARRIER

Overwhelming bureaucracy
Layers in hierarchy, rules and procedures.
Performance evaluation & Rewards stickiest part of the system.
The addition of bonuses and raises does not necessarily motivate a change in
behavior, nor does it necessarily convince people.
The Worldwide Competition From Louise Berringer

THE WORLDWIDE COMPETITION

To have a dramatic recognition program, dramatic improvements are needed.
Teams working on Improvement idea both at local level and then having a global
competition.
Innovative ways of presentation.
300 875 1400 teams. Emotionally moving moments
People feeling empowered

REMOVING BARRIERS IN THE MIND

Never underestimate the power of the mind to disempower.
Never underestimate the power of clever people to help others see the
possibilities, to help them generate a feeling of faith, and to change behavior.
I Survived, So You Can Too from Greg Hughes & Dalene McCann

I SURVIVED, SO YOU CAN TOO

21 teams formed
Ron briefing about the Lexmark way of bracing change jolt of new energy
All-out, knock em dead brawl
Old and new employees like oil and water
This is possible; you wont die in the process; the end result can be very
important.

REMOVING INFORMATION BARRIERS

Making Movies on the Factory Floor from Rick Simmons

Tim, Division executive

Inspections done away with
New change effort
Meetings proved fruitless
Filming production work
Change in outlook
Wooden models of factory setup
Archiving the videos

NOT DOING EVERYTHING AT ONCE

Harold and Lidia from Jeff Collins
Barriers in their department to a big new-product development
concept.
First, engineering team leaders.
Second, lack of any formal process for capturing new-product
brainstorms.
Forming a team of ten good performers
Generating new and promising prototypes

WHAT WORKS
Finding individuals with change experience who can bolster peoples selfconfidence with we-won-you-can too anecdotes.
Recognition and reward systems that inspire, promote optimism, and build selfconfidence.
Feedback that can help people make better vision-related decisions.
Retooling disempowering managers by giving them new jobs that clearly show
the need for change.

WHAT DOES NOT WORK

Ignoring bosses who seriously disempower their subordinates.
Solving the boss problem by taking away their power (making them mad and
scared) and giving it to their subordinates.
Trying to remove all the barriers at once.
Giving in to your own pessimism and fears.

STEP 6 CREATE SHORT-TERM WINS

WHY SHORT TERM??

Producing sufficient short term wins, sufficiently fast to,
Energize the change helpers
Enlighten the pessimists
Defuse the cynics
Build momentum for the effort

WHAT WORKS??

Early wins that come fast (Process Timeline)

Wins that are visible to as many people as possible (Visibility)

Wins that penetrate emotional defenses by being unambiguous (Defusing cynics and enlightening
pessimists)

WHAT WORKS??
Wins that are meaningful to others-the more deeply meaningful the better (Universal
Clarity)
Early wins that speak to powerful players whose support you need and do not have
(Gain support)
Wins that can be achieved easily and cheaply, even if they seem small compared to
the grand vision (Small, small steps)

WHAT WONT WORK??

Juggling too much balls than what you can handle
Providing the first win too slowly
Stretching the truth

STORIES TO LEARN FROM

The list on the bulletin boards
Creating the new navy
The senator owned a trucking company
Hoopla

STEP 7 DONT LET UP

AFTER 1ST SET OF SHORT TERM WINS

Direction & Momentum

Urgency up
Feeling of false pride down
Eliminating exhausting work
BUT not declaring victory prematurely

KEEPING URGENCY UP
Urgency to
drop

Complacent
yourself

Short
term
wins

Become
frustrated

Declare
victory soon
PE ratios

TACKLING MORE AND MORE DIFFICULT

CHANGES
Attitude of Solving easier problems and creating momentum

Courage & perseverance help

Structure situations to gain power
Power = Authority + Time + Resources + Access

The merchant of
Fear

NOT KILLING OURSELVES

Urgency
high

People
want to
take on big
problems

Succeed
in
generating
change

Still fail

Ways to overcome
Conscious effort as early as possible
Anticipate the issue
Stop unnecessary meetings
Delegate more
People are not machines
Rejuvenation from sleep, relaxation and fun off the job is must

25 2

FAVOURITE STEP 7 STORY

This is creative.

The Streets

WHAT HELPS
Aggressively riding yourself of work that wears you down
Looking constantly for ways to keep urgency up
Using new situations opportunistically

WHAT DOES NOT HELP

Developing rigid 4 year plan
Convincing yourself that you are done & you can get the job done without
confronting some of the major problems
Working hard ( physical + mental collapse)

STEP 8 MAKE CHANGE STICK

MAKE CHANGE STICK

Powerful force Tradition

Permanent Change Creation of new, supportive and strong org. culture

Revolutionary technology, globalized organization, innovative strategy,
efficient processes Winner
Fragile Change
Successful change More fragile Challenges have to be met
Case Boss who went to Switzerland Lack of continuity in vision
Change held in place by guiding team

Keys Peers & Not really thinking

Large scale change Power of culture

MAKE CHANGE STICK

New Employee Orientation

Employee turnover Disruption of culture

Case - The path to the patient
Lack of co-ordination
Loss of money
Change
Leadership support from parent organization
Influencing R&D and training sessions
Communication Events
Making it a way of life

MAKE CHANGE STICK

Employee orientation program

1. R&Ds new operating ways

2. Video conveyance
3. Creative animation
4. Projection of core value in the form of a real customer

MAKE CHANGE STICK

The Promotions Process

Reinforcing fragile culture Promotions process

Case Promoting the Thirty-Something
Clarity of path
Successful communication
Real success by acting per the new rules
Denise Warren Flexible schedule Promoting similar persons
Promotions Solid & Stable foundation

MAKE CHANGE STICK

Power of Emotion

Case Home Mortgage

Risk of culture dilution
Visionquest re-examination of values
Story Video of a son
True culture change New way of operating has to succeed over a period of
time
Shifting norms & values before new way of operation Does not work

Behaviors End of process

CONCLUSION

Example is not the main thing

influencing others. It is the only thing.
Albert Schweitzer

Turbulence Ever present

Winning organizations Eight step process of adaptation & transformation
Key Less emphasis on analysis & thinking and more emphasis on seeing &
feeling
Clear thinking Large scale change
Emotions Anger, False pride, Pessimism, Arrogance, Cynicism, Panic,
Exhaustion, Insecurity & Anxiety
Facilitating emotions Faith, Trust, Optimism, Urgency, Reality based pride,
Passion, Excitement, Hope & Enthusiasm

CONCLUSION

See

Feel

Change

Identify
problem
Visualize it
Show
emotionally
engaging
solutions

Visualizations
capture
attention
Increases
emotions that
facilitate
change

Different
feelings
Change of
heart
Transform
behavior