KBA's founder, Susie Kennedy has been a passionate advocate of John Kotter's work on leadership and change since this article was first published in 1995. Communicating directly with Kotter in 1998, we started developing our change leadership tools and The Eight Step Approach.

For nearly a decade we have applied Kotter's principles and witnessed successful change. Kotter's sequel to Leading Change, The Heart of Change, co-written with Dan Cohen of Deloittes, was published 6 years later. It provides stories of change in practice to increase understanding of how The 8 Step Approach can be used. Kotter's opening lines in the book read, "The single most important message in this book is very simple. People change what they do less because they are given analysis that shifts their thinking than because they are shown the truth that influences their feelings." 

Time and time again we've seen even the most unlikley converts turnaround and buy into change when we use our approach. This is why we use Kotter's work. It works.

Below is a summary of the article - both books deserve a place by your bedside!

Harvard Business Review Classic Article, John P. Kotter, Reprinted Jan 2007

This article was originally published in March-April 1995 and was republished in January 2007 as an HBR Classic.

Businesses hoping to survive over the long term will have to remake themselves into better competitors at least once along the way. These efforts have gone under many banners: total quality management, reengineering, rightsizing, restructuring, cultural change, and turnarounds, to name a few. In almost every case, the goal has been to cope with a new, more challenging market by changing the way business is conducted. A few of these endeavours have been very successful. A few have been utter failures. Most fall somewhere in between, with a distinct tilt toward the lower end of the scale.

John P. Kotter is renowned for his work on leading organisational change. In 1995, when this article was first published, he had just completed a 10-year study of more than 100 companies that attempted such a transformation. Here he shares the results of his observations, outlining the eight largest errors that can doom these efforts and explaining the general lessons that encourage success.

Unsuccessful transitions almost always founder during at least one of the following phases:

1. Generating a sense of urgency
2. Establishing a powerful guiding coalition
3. Developing a vision
4. Communicating the vision clearly and often
5. Removing obstacles
6. Planning for and creating short-term wins
7. Avoiding premature declarations of victory
8. Embedding changes in the corporate culture.

Realising that change usually takes a long time, says Kotter, can improve the chances of success.

For more information about our Change consulting and training, please contact us.