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Leading Change by John P. Kotter (6) Creating short-term wins (Requires…
Leading Change
by John P. Kotter
5) Empower others to act
Align organizational structures to vision
Self-defensive mid-level management layers
If restructuring comes too late, people
will have lost the energy for the change
Misaligned structures kill the change agenda
Address cultural deficiencies
Mistrust
Envy
Resentment
Provide required training
Technical skills
Also attitude / personality training
Design training carefully!
Align systems with vision
HR systems
Incentives
Promotions/Succession
Management systems
Empowerment: removing impediments for action
2) Create guiding coalition
Essential key characteristics
Leadership
Position Power
Expertise
Credibility
Management and Leadership
Management keeps process under control
Leadership drives change
Teamwork!
Avoid
Big egos that leave no room for anybody else
"Snakes": People building mistrust and thus killing teamwork
Teamwork is essential
3) Create a vision
Effective visions' characteristics
Imaginable
create a mental picture
what will the future look like?
Desirable
Justifies sacrifices in the present
Never ignore legitimate
long-term interests of any party
It's not about balancing / trade off interests
It is about integrating interests!
Feasible
Might be very demanding
Is achievable from where we are now
Focused
Focus on the essence
Prioritize aspects
Flexible
Leaves enough space
Will figure out the details piece by piece
Communicatable
Simple language
Avoid jargon
Concise, to the point
Use analogies
Vision creation is significant effort
Lead time
Invested effor
Number of stakeholders involved
Questions to qualify a change vision
If the vision becomes reality.....
... will stakeholders satisfied today still be satisfied?
... will it attract new stakeholders
(customers, investors, talent)?
... will it make stakeholders happier,
that are not fully satisief today?
... will it allow us to serve our stakeholders
better than our competition?
... will it capture their heads and hearts?
Stakeholder groups to consider
Customers
Shareholders/investors
Employees
4) Communicate the vision
:link: "Made to Stick" by the Heath brothers
Communicate continuously
Strive to link all communication back to the vision (on all levels of hierarchy)
"One-shot" communication won't do the job
Inconsistent action undermines vision
1. Establish : sense of urgency
Sources of Complacency
Tendency to deny what we don't want to hear
Too many visible resources
Absense of visible crisis
Generally low performance standards
Too much happy talk from senior management
Corporate culture
Kill the messenger
Low confrontation culture
Low candor culture
Internal management systems with focus
on wrong performance indexes
Insufficient performance feedback from external sources
Organizational strcutres with foucs on narrow functions
Measures
Stop measuring on narrow functional goals -
hold people responsible for overall business performance
Provoke or allow for a crisis
Allow errors to blow up, stop aviding escalations
Expose managers to major weaknesses compared to competitors
Allow financial loss
Make sure people have reular contact
with unsatisfied stakeholders
suppliers
shareholders
customers
Stop senior management from "Happy Talk" -
focus on honest communication
Set high goals that cannot be
reached doing business as ususal
cycle times/time to market
customer satisfaction
productivity
income
revenue
Remove signs of excess
Make more data on financial performance and customer satisfaction available to people
Continuously provide information on future opportunities that the company is not able to materialize
6) Creating short-term wins
Why?
Build up trust in the vision
Take the wind out of sceptics sails
Prove the change is worth the effort
Short-Term
Within 24 months for bigger projects
<6 months for small companies/units
Requires Management
Insufficient attention to short-term wins
endangers the change
Plan for wins and execute rigorously
Risk of management being ignored/undervalued by strong leaders
Lack of commitment to change from management is
typically due to insufficient involvement in earlier phases
Do not underestimate the role of
good management in change processes
Characteristics
Visible to large groups of people
Make sure required data is recorded
Unambiguous
Clearly related to change process
Must be sustainable
No fake stories
No questionable tricks
Obstacles
People don't believe you can produce significant change and short-term results.
Pressure helps keeping complacency low
Link pressure to urgency
Constantly refer to vision and strategy
7) Consolidate gains & produce more change
Resistance to change never
completely dissipates
Irrational
Political
Letting go kills momentum
Celebrate success, but keep urgency level high
Opens door for regression
Use the momentum and credibility from short-term wins
to reinforce and speed-up the change process
Interdependence makes
change efforts more complex
Get rid of unneeded interdependence
Right level of interdependence is a critical success-factor
Change in interdependent systems requires more time
Implementing first wins will make
more change potential visible
Phase 7 can be decade-long and
contain many change projects to be executed
Characteristics of successful phase 7
More change, not less
More people involved to help with the change
Senior management focus on leadership
Delegate leadership and management
on detailed levels as low as possible
Makes running a multitude of change projects is possible
Project management and leadership from lower hierarchies
Reduction of unnecessary interdependence
8) Anchoring new approach in culture
Term "culture" refers to
Shared values
Shared norms of behavior
Culture change comes last, not first
Finally aligning culture is essential
Wew practices must grow deep roots
Even without personal incompatibilities,
changing norms and values
that have evolved over a long period of time
will require a lot of time
Proof that altered behavior is leading to performance improvements is often precondition for cultural adoption
Culture is important because
It is a powerful means to guide behavior
New practices introduced in transformation, that are incompatible with relevant existing culture elements,
are always subject to regression.
Once established, it is difficult to change
It is transported unconsciously to newcomers
and adopted similarly unconsciously by them
Individuals are being indoctrinated easily
It exerts itself trough actions of people
It helps effectively selecting people (e.g. in recruiting)
It is difficult to challenge, discuss, or argue
Situation in many transformation efforts:
Partial replacement of selected culture elements
Situation
New vision is incompatible to some
specific culture elements
New vision suits well with core of existing culture
What to do
Bind new practices to old roots
Cut off incompatible elements carefully but definitively
Value the old elements
They have been useful in the past
But they are no longer suitable,
so send them into retirement.
More challenging situation:
Replacement of the old culture required
Talk a great deal about
Evidence that shows the new practices lead to
measurable performance improvements
Old culture
Origin
How it had served
Why it is no longer appropriate
Provide exit scenario for those unwilling to adopt
Work hard to keep on board who embraces the new culture
Ensure new hires match the new culture, not the old one.
Promote only who's fully embracing the new culture