Key Performance Indicators: Developing, Implementing, and Using Winning KPIs, 3rd Edition

Chapter 10Leading and Selling the Change (Stage 3)

Overview

All major project implementations are deeply affected by the success or failure in leading and selling the change. This chapter outlines John Kotter’s model of leading change, emphasizes the importance of selling by emotional drivers of the intended audience, and sets out the steps required in this stage. This chapter gives instructions on how to access, free of charge, a PDF of the suggested worksheets and checklists to be used by the KPI project team.

Before we venture further into the process of implementation, we need first to address selling the change within our organization. As we well know from past experiences, this sales process is not easy and prone to failure. I would argue that more than half the initiatives that are declined by the board or senior management were under sold. In other words, given the right approach, the initiative would have gone ahead.

If you are not prepared to learn the skills to cover the common deficiencies in selling change process, you are better off playing golf or burying yourself in a process. Selling change requires a special set of skills and we all can, and should, get better at it. The people with the natural talent in this area are likely to be found in sales or public relations functions.

Leading Change by John Kotter

In 1996, John Kotter published Leading Change,¹ which quickly became the seminal work in the change management space. He pointed out, as we already ...