Leading for Organisational Change

Chapter 5Everything Must Change

It is virtually impossible to talk about change without talking about John Kotter, and his iconic book, Leading Change.¹ It would be a brave or foolish person who would challenge what has become, in the twenty years since its publication, pretty much the universally accepted and definitive model for managing change. Happily, I am not that person. My response to Kotter is simply, ‘Yes. And …’

Kotter outlines an eight-stage process for change:

• establishing a sense of urgency
• creating a guiding coalition
• developing a vision and strategy
• communicating the change vision
• empowering employees for broad-based action
• generating short-term wins
• consolidating gains and producing more change
• anchoring new approaches in the culture.

In this list, Kotter has identified and elegantly defined eight important aspects of any change programme, and it can be helpful to think of them, at least initially, as a linear process (Fig. 5.1). However, the process as outlined assumes a degree of hierarchy and a degree of command and control, which is increasingly rare in organisations today, as the influence of millennials in the workforce, the increased reliance on technology and the sharing economy all drive us towards a more level, inclusive and collaborative field of leadership.

Figure 5.1 Kotter's original linear approach.

In organisations with a flatter hierarchy ...