45 pages • 1 hour read
John P. KotterLeading Change
Nonfiction | Reference/Text Book | Adult | Published in 1988A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 3-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “The Eight-Stage Process”
Part 2, Chapter 3 Summary: “Establishing a Sense of Urgency”
The first step in the eight-stage process is to create a sense of urgency. Kotter comments that a lack of urgency, or high levels of complacency, can prevent change efforts from developing at all. Kotter identifies nine sources of complacency: a lack of major crisis, visible wealth, low standards, narrow goals, incorrect performance indexes, lack of external feedback, low-confrontation culture, natural urges toward denial, and “happy talk” from upper-management. High complacency aligns with low urgency, so Kotter offers solutions to each of these complacency sources to increase urgency.
Organizations can artificially create a crisis, such as setting an unrealistic goal that causes disruption when it is not met. Selling signs of visible wealth, like fancy furniture or expansive headquarters, can give the impression that the company is not doing well. Increasing standards, broadening goals at all management levels, and using better metrics to measure performance can improve urgency while improving functionality. Encouraging confrontation, bringing in outside consultants or customers, and speaking frankly about the need for change can all stimulate discussion that overwhelms the urge toward denial and pushes conversations toward change.
Kotter comments that mid- and low-level management can rarely instigate change without immense effort and pre-existing dissatisfaction among top managers and executives. However, he also notes that a large minority of top-level managers and executives are likely to see the need for change, and they may voice their concerns through the efforts of lower-level management. Ultimately, the majority of employees in a firm need to feel a sense of urgency for change to be feasible; without a broad sense of urgency, organizations cannot move on to the next stages of the eight-stage process.
Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary: “Creating the Guiding Coalition”
Kotter describes how a single, motivated, and intelligent leader cannot effect change alone, nor can a weak committee that lacks vision and does not command respect. Change can only come about through a strong, influential, and dedicated coalition of leading members of a firm. In composing the coalition, Kotter cautions against involving too many managers or leaders, advocating a balance between leadership and management qualities. Leaders drive change, and managers ensure that the coalition and change process function correctly. Two personalities to avoid in creating a coalition are people with big egos and “snakes.” A big ego eliminates the possibility of teamwork and collaboration, as such people will always dominate conversations and decision-making. Snakes, or people who drive distrust, will undermine efforts for change by influencing the other coalition members against one another. The coalition must include powerful and respected figures in a firm, but if any among those figures have a large ego or are a snake, they may need to be persuaded into retirement or to resign. Trying to work around influential figures undermines any effort toward change, as the influential figure will likely oppose any process that excludes them.
Kotter emphasizes the need for trust, which is important in any team, and teamwork in the coalition. Even clashing personalities can be brought to an understanding through team building and a common goal. Kotter reflects on team building of the past, in which team members would meet each other’s families and spend time together outside of work; his conclusion is that this tactic is no longer practical. Instead, Kotter recommends team retreats, in which team members go on a trip to accomplish activities together and become closer. By building trust and constructing a common goal, the team is more likely to work fluidly and accomplish the tasks required of them in effecting change.
Part 2, Chapter 5 Summary: “Developing a Vision and Strategy”
Kotter establishes how vision is superior to authoritarian or micromanaging styles of instigating change, as it brings people into a plan that they believe in and can see succeeding over time. Kotter outlines six requirements of a successful vision: The vision must be imaginable, desirable, feasible, focused, flexible, and communicable. Imaginable visions give a clear picture of the vision’s goal, and desirable visions have a goal that most people involved will want to work toward. Feasibility is determined by how likely it is that the vision’s objectives can be achieved; it involves balancing these objectives between driving desire for and maintaining faith in the vision. Focused visions have specific goals and provide distinct paths for employees and managers to follow. Focus and flexibility leave room for discussion on the vision’s purpose and objectives while maintaining the broader concepts guiding the vision to avoid minor disputes. Communicability is a balance between simplicity and accuracy, in which the vision needs to be easily understood by all parties involved, but it must also present the truth and purpose of the vision.
Kotter presents seven steps to creating a successful vision: developing a first draft, involving the guiding coalition, encouraging teamwork, using both analytical and intuitive thinking, working through the messiness of the process, taking the necessary time, and producing the end product. Kotter acknowledges that some of these steps involve significant challenges, such as mitigating the urge to overanalyze and ignore intuition. Kotter reiterates the importance of completing each stage of the eight-stage process in order, as visions cannot be effective without both urgency across the firm and support from the guiding coalition.
Part 2, Chapter 6 Summary: “Communicating the Change Vision”
Kotter acknowledges that there are barriers to communication of a vision, and he emphasizes seven key elements in this process: keeping the vision simple, using figurative language, communicating across multiple formats, repeating the key ideas of the vision, leading by example, explaining possible inconsistencies, and using two-way communication to get feedback. Keeping the vision simple involves removing jargon and specialized language. The vision needs to be understood by all departments and levels of employees, so the accessibility of its language is key. Figurative language, like metaphors, analogies, or examples, can similarly help a broader base of the firm internalize the essence of the vision. To further build understanding, the vision should be discussed in many forums, such as meetings, one-on-one discussions, and other gatherings. In these forums, the key is to repeat the vision by tying all decisions and speculation to the goals and objectives of the vision, therein reinforcing its importance and content.
One of the challenges Kotter notes is transitioning to leading by example and explaining inconsistencies. If a vision involves cutting costs, then top management needs to show that they, too, are invested in this goal. Instead of buying or remodeling new corporate headquarters, they might consider relocating to a more affordable location or cutting costs in company transportation. If these changes are not feasible or would cost too much to remedy, then leadership needs to communicate this inconsistency to the employees, explaining that something like corporate jets are necessary for specific tasks or that the cost of relocating headquarters outweighs the savings. Finally, two-way communication, allowing for employees and management to openly discuss the vision, can help identify holes in the vision or refine specific details of the vision’s objectives. At the same time, open dialogue helps to further communicate the message of the vision at all levels of the firm.
Part 2, Chapters 3-6 Analysis
This section both introduces and justifies the first four stages in Kotter’s eight-stage process using figurative language: Namely, Kotter describes these opening stages as key to what he terms “defrosting.” The purpose of the first four stages is to prepare the organization for change through an increase in urgency, the formation of a guiding coalition, the defining of a vision for change, and the communication of that vision with the aim of synchronizing all employees for the impending change. Kotter repeats his insistence that companies must progress through the stages in order. No next stage can begin without the prior stage’s completion. Urgency is necessary to form the coalition, the coalition must exist to develop the vision, and the vision is required to start convincing employees that there is a specific goal to the change. Critically, Kotter is not outlining eight things that companies need in order to enact change. Rather, he is providing an ordered set of actions that must be taken to achieve the desired goal, making the order of stages crucial to success. Each stage addresses The Nature and Challenges of Change, such as the need for leadership in the coalition to avoid forming a weak committee or the need to simplify the vision so that it can be easily understood without sacrificing intent. Furthermore, the process overall reflects how change is a long-term process with many potential pitfalls. Each prior stage serves to remove barriers to entering the next stage. With sufficient urgency, it is more likely that mid- and top-level management will want to participate in the coalition, and, with a compelling vision, the goals of the vision will be enticing and persuasive.
Kotter elaborates in these chapters on the themes of The Importance of Vision and Direction in Organizational Dynamics and The Difference Between Leadership and Management. The need for a clear, convincing vision dominates the third and fourth stages, and strong leadership is a critical element in every stage. Kotter defines “vision” as “a picture of the future with some implicit or explicit commentary on why people should strive to create that future” (68). Embedded within this definition are the key motivators behind creating a vision, as well as how the vision can be used to motivate employees. The envisioned future is the source of the vision, created when leaders ask themselves how they can make their desired future a reality. That vision then needs to include details on “why people should strive” to accomplish the goals of the vision, expanding beyond the interests of top management to the interests of the full membership of the firm. In Kotter’s example of moving a group of people to an apple tree, the vision is clear: The tree protects people from rain and promises food. These benefits overtake the inertia of a group that might otherwise wish to remain comfortably seated. The same premise applies to a company’s vision for change. People cannot just be told what to do; they need to be convinced with some promise of a brighter future for themselves along with the company.
Regarding leadership, Kotter continues to emphasize leading over managing. He makes clear that his position is not based on some kind of moral judgment of managers but rather on an assessment of managers’ roles in organizations: “A guiding coalition made up only of managers—even superb managers who are wonderful people—will cause major change effort to fail” (59). Kotter is not saying that managers are useless. Rather, the issue is that managers lack the driving motivation to enact change, something at which leaders excel. In Kotter’s diagrams on Page 58, however, he demonstrates that too many leaders can create problems in effecting change, just as too few leaders can. What’s needed is a balance of management and leadership. This balance is key to keeping the change moving forward without losing track of organizational needs. For example, in discussing the importance of repetition in communicating vision, Kotter uses the example of Gloria, who is a manager. He notes that Gloria might incorporate the vision into the criteria for evaluations. By integrating the vision in the organizational and bureaucratic methodology of management, skilled managers can integrate it into all levels of the company.
