Leading Change - Leading People Through Change in Difficult Times

According to John Kotter, in a recent interview in "Management Consulting News", many organisations are now much better at managing and guiding change. But unfortunately the current rate of change that we are all experiencing is faster than the rate at which organisations are improving, and he feels that gap is increasing. Here are 5 implications:

(1) The marginal rate of change is increasing [and will continue to do so]

We used to believe that change occurs in cycles and waves that ebb and flow. This may be accurate over long time spans of hundreds of years, but in the present the rate of change is continually increasing.

(2) Leaders need to get better at leading and managing change

As I see it, Kotter's core message is that leaders need to get better at leading people through change, putting it all together and managing the whole messy business. To deal with this organisational leaders need to get better at all of the eight steps that the Kotter 8 step change model identifies as necessary for successful change

(3) The sense of urgency re change needs to permeate the whole organisation

Leaders need to pay more attention to the early stages of the change process, that is: creating a feeling of urgency, clarifying the vision, good communication and empowering people to take action. And the one key place to focus is on creating and sustaining the sense of urgency about the need for change, and that starts at the top.

In my own experience I have observed that the people at the top may think there's plenty of sense of urgency, yet if you drill down into the organisation, you so often find that it's not really there and certainly not what it needs to be to sustain change throughout the duration of a successful initiative.

The absence of a universally shared sense of urgency in an organisation embarking on change is as Kotter aptly puts it: "like trying to build a pyramid on a foundation of empty shoe boxes"!

(4) Leaders' deeds are more important than their words

Often during the change process, difficult things have to be addressed, such as layoffs, restructurings and redeployments. In these situations, the leaders deeds are as, or probably more, important than their words:

"When people see it being done right, their fear level quite rationally goes down and their conviction grows that the plan can work..."

(5) Leaders need to understand what does and doesn't work before embarking on change

The key piece of advice that Kotter offers is for organisational leaders to take the time to get themselves informed about what does and doesn't work - before launching into action with a change initiative. A perspective that I thoroughly endorse and as he says:

"If you get that knowledge upfront, it can save you great grief and money later on."