Leading Change March 17 th, 2008

Themes ► Leading vs. Managing Change ► Transformational leaders vs. Transactional leadership ► Kotter’s 8 Step Process

Devotion ► Leading and implementing Change ► Exodus 18 ► Reflective Questions:  Who are you most like, Moses or Jethro?  What was Jethro’s “formula” for coaching Moses?  What principles would you extract from this passage for your own leadership credo?

Kotter Discussion ► “..change process goes through a series of phases that, in total, usually require a considerable length of time.”

Kotter Discussion ► “Change, by definition, requires creating a new system.”

Kotter Discussion ► “..when the urgency rate is not pumped up enough, the transformation process cannot succeed and the long-term future of the organization is put in jeopardy”.”

Kotter Discussion ► “No matter how capable or dedicated the staff head, groups without strong leadership never achieve the power that is required.”

Kotter Discussion ► “without sensible vision, a tranformation effort can easily dissolve into a list of confusing and incompatible projects that can take the organization in the wrong direction or nowhere at all.”

Kotter Discussion ► “Executives who communicate well incorporate messages in their hour-by-hour activities.”

Kotter Discussion ► “Nothing undermines change more than behavior by important individuals that is inconsistent with their words.”

Kotter Disucssion ► “Commitments to produce short-term wins help keep the urgency level up and force detailed analytical thinking that can clarify or revise visions.” ► “they (leaders) understand that renewal efforts take not months but years.”

Kotter Discussion ► “Until new behaviors are rooted in social norms and shared values, they are subject to degradation as soon as the pressure for change is removed.”

Three Dimensional Tic Tac Toe ► ictactoe/3dtictactoe.html ictactoe/3dtictactoe.html ictactoe/3dtictactoe.html

Leading Change Based on “Leading Change” John Kotter.

Why Change Fails 1. Allowing too much complacency 2. Failing to create a sufficiently powerful guiding coalition 3. Underestimating the power of vision 4. Undercommunicating the vision 5. Permitting obstacles to block the vision

Why Change Fails 6. Failing to create short term wins 7. Declaring victory too soon 8. Neglecting to anchor changes firmly in the corporate culture.

Leading Not Managing ► Only leadership can motivate the actions needed to alter behavior in any significant way. ► Only leadership can get change to stick, by anchoring it in the very culture of the organization. ► The leadership effort must have support from many people who assist the leadership agenda within their sphere of activity.

The Eight Stage Change Process The first four steps help to defrost a hardened status quo. They are: 1 establishing a sense of urgency 2 creating the guiding coalition 3 developing a vision and strategy 4 communicating the change vision

The Eight Stage Change Process The next stages then introduce many new practices: 5 empowering a broad base of people to take action 6 generating short term wins 7 consolidating gains and producing even more change

The Eight Stage Change Process The final stage grounds the changes in the corporate culture, and makes them “ stick ” 8 institutionalizing new approaches in the culture

Establishing a Sense of Urgency ► Actions Required  Examine externally crises or opportunities  Convince a critical mass of managers that status quo is more important than the unknown ► Challenges  Underestimating the difficulty of driving people from their comfort zones  Becoming paralyzed by risk avoidance

Form a powerful guiding coalition ► Actions needed  Assemble a group with shared commitment and enough power to lead the change effort  Encourage them to work as a team outside the normal hierarchy ► Challenges  No prior experience in teamwork at the top  Relegating team leadership to an HR quality or strategic planning executive rather than a senior line manager

Create a Vision ► Actions Needed:  Create a vision to direct the change effort  Develop strategies for realizing that vision ► Challenges:  Presenting a vision that’s too complicated or vague to be communicated in five minutes

Communicate the vision ► Actions needed:  Use every vehicle possible to communicate the new vision and strategies for achieving it  Teach new behaviors by the example of the guiding coalition ► Challenges:  Under communicating the vision  Behaving in ways antithetical to the vision

Empower other to act on the vision ► Actions needed:  Remove or alter systems or structures undermining the vision  Encourage risk taking and nontraditional ideas, activities, and actions ► Challenges:  Failing to remove powerful individuals who resist the change effort

Plan for and create short-term wins ► Actions needed:  Define and engineer visible performance improvements  Recognize and reward employees contributing to those improvements ► Challenges:  Leaving short term successes up to chance  Failing to score successes early enough

Consolidate improvements and produce more change ► Actions needed:  Use increased credibility from early wins to change systems, structures, and policies undermining the vision  Hire, promote, and develop employees who can implement the vision ► Challenges  Declaring victory too soon – with the earliest performance improvements  Allowing resistors to convince the community that the war has alread been won

Institutionalize new approaches ► Actions needed:  Articulate connections between new behaviors and corporate success  Create leadership development and succession plans consistent with the new appraoch ► Challenges  Not creating new social norms and shared values consistent with changes  Promoting people into leadership positions who don’t personify the new approach