Kotters 8 steps to change

Background
 
John P. Kotter’s eight stage process for creating major change is one of the most widely recognized models for change management. John P. Kotter is a retired Harvard Business School Professor of Leadership. Kotter is also a Co-founder of Kotter International based in Seattle and Boston.
 
Kotter’s article about “the eight stage process for Leading change” was originally published in the spring of 1995 in The Harvard Business Review. This article previewed Kotter’s 1996 book “Leading Change”.
Professor Kotter has proven over his years of research that following The 8-Step Process for Leading Change will help organizations succeed in an ever-changing world. 
 
About the Model
 
In general, the model consists of three main phases.
 
These three phases cover eight individual steps.
 
In phase I - which covers the first three steps – it is about creating a climate for change and getting a shared understanding of the difficult assignment which lies ahead of the organizationIn 
 
Phase II – which covers the steps 4 through 6 – it is about engaging the employees in the process and enabling the employees to effect change in the organization
 
In Phase III – which covers the last two steps of the eight steps – it is about implementing and sustaining change in the organization
 
Now we shall review each of the eight steps individually. 
 
We start at the top of the model and then we go down through the model one step at a time. 
Each step is necessary when you wants to transform your organization. To give your transformation effort the best chance of succeeding, you have to take the right actions at each stages – and avoid common pitfalls
 
The first step is “Establishing a Sense of Urgency”.
Actions needed in this stage. You have to examine the market and competition for potential crises and untapped opportunities. You have to convince at least 75 % of your managers that the status quo is more dangerous than the unknown.
 
Step two is ”Forming a Powerful Guiding Coalition”.
Actions needed in this stage. You have to assemble a group with a shared commitment and enough power to lead the change effort. You also have to encourage them to work as a team outside the normal hierarchy. A major transformation generally demands activity outside of formal boundaries, expectations, and protocol.
 
Step three is “Creating a Vision”.
Actions needed in this stage. The team has to create a vision to direct the change effort. The team also has to develop strategies for the realization of the vision.
 
Step four is “Communicating the Vision”.
Actions needed in this stage. Use every possible way to communicate the new vision and strategies for achieving it. The vision will be referred to in emails, in meetings, in presentations – it will be communicated anywhere and everywhere. Teach new behaviors by example of the guiding coalition. If the focus of the vision is on the environment, Management have to drive more environmentally friendly cars.
Executives have to do the “walk the talk” – professionally and privately. 
 
Step five is “Empowering Others to Act on the Vision
Actions needed in this stage. The guiding coalition has to remove or alter systems or structures undermining the vision. An organization that claims to want to be customer focused finds its structures fragment resources and responsibilities for products and services. They have to change this to unleash people to do their best work. The coalition have to encourage risk taking and nontraditional ideas, activities, and actions. Realigning incentives and performance appraisals to reflect the change vision can have a profound effect on the ability to accomplish the change vision.
 
Step six is “Planning for and Creating Short-Term Wins”
Actions needed in this stage. The Guiding Coalition must define and engineer visible performance improvements. Running a change effort without attention to short-term performance is extremely risky. For leaders in the middle of a long-term change effort, short-term wins are essential. Getting these wins helps ensure the overall change initiative’s success. The leaders must recognize and reward employees contributing to those improvements.
 
Step seven is “Consolidating Improvements and Producing Still More Change”
Actions needed in this stage. Leaders must use increased credibility from early wins to change systems, structures, and policies undermining the vision. They also have to hire, promote, and develop dedicated employees who can help them implement the vision. Leaders also have to reinvigorate the change process with new projects and change agents.
 
Step eight is “Institutionalizing New Approaches”
Actions needed in this stage. Leaders must articulate connections between new behaviors and corporate success. They must show employees how the new approaches, behaviors, and attitudes have helped improve performance. Change sticks when it becomes “the way we do things around here”.
 
Criticism of model
 
It is a rigid approach that you can only take one step at a time. Some scholars argue that you can have different speeds in an organization. The vision is the same but the changes happen at different speeds in different parts of the organization. 
Some steps are not relevant in some contexts. A simple example is the replacement of major software used to process operations, or the change of equipment on a manufacturing line. In these cases the changes are often irreversible, and so step 7 and 8 might not be relevant.
Dealing with difficulties during change management. Planning changes according to Kotter’s framework should limit those obstacles, but the model is not detailed enough to provide help in all scenarios.