Kotter’s Eight Steps For Leading Change Model

John Kotter, an expert in leadership and change management, believes that organisational change typically fails because senior management commits one or more of the following errors:

• Failure to establish a sense of urgency about the need for change.
• Failure to create a powerful enough guiding coalition that is responsible for leading and managing the change process.
• Failure to establish a vision that guides the change process.
• Failure to effectively communicate the new vision.
• Failure to remove obstacles that impede the accomplishment of the new vision.
• Failure to systematically plan for and create short-term wins. Short-term wins represent the achievement of important results or goals.
• Declaration of victory too soon. This derails the long-term changes in infrastructure that are frequently needed to achieve a vision.
• Failure to anchor the changes in the organisation’s culture. It takes years for long-term changes to be embedded within an organisation’s culture.

Kotter recommends the following eight sequential steps to overcome these problems:

Click here to view a video about Kotter's 8 steps for leading change.