Leading Change by John Kotter - Book Report/Review Example

Running head: BOOK REVIEW - LEADING CHANGE BY JOHN KOTTER Book Review - Leading Change by John Kotter Table of Contents Overview 3 The Eight Stage Process for Affecting Change 4 Lessons Learnt From Critical Mistakes 6 Cultural Change in Organizations 7 Applying Kotter’s Concepts to Business Situations 8 Conclusion 9 List of References………………………………………………………………………………. 10 Overview A major theme in Kotter’s book titled Leading Change, is the notion that leadership implies different things for managements. He focuses on stressing that effective leadership is more important than the management in any organization because successful change depends between 70 and 90 percent on leadership and that management can influence change only to the extent of 10-30 percent. He holds that it is primarily for historical reasons that most organizations do not have that kind of leadership. In deviating from management jargon the author has come up with a visionary and understandable version in guiding the business world towards the much required changes in the business world. The book is an excellent business guidebook in which Kotter focuses upon an all inclusive structure, which business executives at all levels can follow to achieve positive results. He has advised people responsible for implementing change that there is no need to panic or become fearful while dealing with urgent organizational issues. Such situations warrant avoidance of complacency and the author emphasizes that change in the 21st century can be affected only if over-managed and under-led cultures are handled with caution. It is important to remember that management deals primarily with the status quo while leadership is responsible to mostly deal with change. There is a strong need for management to develop skills to create strong leaders. Kotter has also identified the drawbacks of this strategy and has cautioned leaders to avoid people that can destabilize efficient change efforts. The author has commendably argued that instead of individuals, teams should be recognized and the focus should be on life long learning patterns in a constantly changing world. It is not possible to learn everything during any given period because growth is a continuous process that imposes repeated challenges in terms of processes and people. Kotter has discussed the eight main reasons why improvement efforts have proved to be unsatisfactory, primarily because of inappropriate use of resources and people. He has discussed all the errors exhaustively through the use of clear and simple models and asserted that these errors mostly characterize the change process in any organization, which can have severe consequences. Kotter has argued that such errors are not necessarily unavoidable, which is why he claims he wrote this book. The fundamental objective is to understand why companies defend against the required changes and to recognize what specifically is the set of processes that can do away with such negative inactions. Most importantly, there is a strong need to understand that the leadership responsible for driving the processes in socially healthy ways has to do much more than just good management. Kotler has discussed the reasons why organizations need to change and improve. The Eight Stage Process for Affecting Change A major lesson from Kotter’s book is that organizations can effectively put the required changes into practice. Kotter holds that the ways of changing the organization are based on the basic fact that major changes will not happen because of several reasons that he sought to overcome with his eight stage process of affecting major changes. Kotter has written about the eight stages that "there are still more mistakes that people make, but these eight are the big ones. In reality, even successful change efforts are messy and full of surprises" (Kotter, 1996, p.89). The author’s first stage relates to establishing a strong sense of urgency that is necessary to get rid of the feeling of complacency in any organization. His most important concept in this regard is that an effective strategy in change efforts is to never underestimate the strength of complacent forces that insist on maintaining status quo. The author has provided meaningful ways to raise urgency levels and to deal with crisis situations and low and middle level managers. Kotter’s second stage deals with creating a guiding coalition, which is always required with appropriate composition, shared objectives and levels of trust. The main factors that influence efficient formation of coalitions are leadership, credibility, expertise and position of power. It is essential for leadership and management to work as a team. The third stage is about developing a vision and strategy. A superior vision provides the direction for change; encourages people to move in the right directions and assists in coordinating the action of people. It follows that a good vision must be communicable, adaptable, focused, practicable, desired and conceivable. However, it is not enough to have a good vision because strategy is also very important as it shows how the vision is to be achieved. A vision becomes powerful if all employees in the organization have a clear understanding of the objectives and strategy. The organization’s vision has to be communicated effectively without the presence of any jargon. The author has correctly said in this regard that “a relatively simple vision is needed to guide people through a major change, so a vision of the change process can reduce the error rate” (Kotter, 1996, p.74). Employees have to be empowered towards mixed actions because otherwise the organization will not be able to face the challenges of a globalized economic atmosphere. Given that big changes take time to be implemented, it is better to also focus on short term winning efforts, which should be evident, explicit and directly associated with the change efforts. Change efforts can be adversely impacted by several forces just before the change outcomes are achieved. It is thus important to be aware that political and unreasonable opposition to change efforts is not always dispelled. Short term success should not make the organization complacent because short term success can fade away in view of enhanced interdependence and negative corporate culture. It is known that corporate culture or social forces impact all employees. Corporate culture can greatly influence human behaviors, primarily because it is difficult to change and is mostly invisible. According to Kotter, there are three main reasons why culture is so powerful: Because people are instructed very well Because culture brings to bear itself through the action of several people Because the impact of culture is not with conscious intention, which makes it hard to discuss or challenge. Lessons Learnt From Critical Mistakes Another important concept discussed by Kotter is the lessons organizations learn from critical mistakes. By not establishing the required sense of urgency, change efforts do not succeed. Many organizations do not create a strong guiding coalition and fail because they do not give importance to the intricacies of producing change. Kotter writes about coalitions that “sooner or later countervailing forces undermine the initiatives” (Kotter, 1996, p.103). Because of lack of a meaningful vision, the change efforts mostly get dissolved into confusion and inefficiency that leads the organization in the wrong direction. Change cannot be effected unless there is an efficient communication process, which will motivate thousands of employees to offer help and sacrifice. Organizations often do not remove hurdles relative to the new vision, such as the existing organizational framework that is characterized with ill-defined job categories, which can severely weaken efforts pertaining to enhancing production. In some firms, performance appraisal and compensation processes allow people to make a trade off between self interests and organizational vision. By not adopting systematic planning and by designing short term winning strategies firms end up becoming passive instead of active. In a good change program management looks at establishing systems of improving performance and annual planning system objectives. The idea is to achieve the goals and recognize good performers with promotions, recognition and salary increases. Many firms declare victory too early but successful leaders use short term gains to handle bigger problems. Organizations often make the mistake of not implementing change in their cultures, which gets ingrained into the working system. In order to improve this situation new behaviors have to be embedded into the shared values and social structure, otherwise the organization will degrade the moment pressures towards change are removed. Cultural Change in Organizations Another important concept in the book is that cultural change is difficult but must be dealt with at the last stage of the change efforts. If a company attempts to initiate cultural change in the beginning, the entire working system of the organization will be put at risk and too much negativity will creep into the system. Kotter holds that firms should first coherently decide what has to be changed and then go about implementing the change process and then move towards influencing and altering organizational culture. Therefore, while attempting to change culture firms have to remember that change in culture is the last stage of the change process and is mostly dependent on the results achieved till that time. Cultural change requires a great deal of communication and could significantly impact turnover of the firm. Applying Kotter’s Concepts to Business Situations Having understood Kotter’s concepts it is quite convenient to apply them to a typical business situation. Given that the present pattern of global recession has greatly reduced revenues and the bottom line of firms, it is meaningful to use Kotter’s advices in improving the situation. The automobile industry in the US is virtually grounded and it is fruitful for the industry to consider implementing Kotter’s strategy. It is evident that improvement can be brought about only by initiating a change process with active involvement of the management whose top leaders should frame new strategies to effect improvement. The transformation will be painful, but firms will have to stop being complacent and create a strong guiding coalition involving workers and management. By creating a new vision, automobile firms will create ground for workers to expect better things, which will motivate them to work harder and to sacrifice to achieve better results. This will be achieved through better communication strategies so that the prevailing hurdles can be removed. Firms will have to be cautious that they do not get misled by short term wins and should consistently work towards the long term goal of bringing a positive turnaround in its performance and fortunes. Conclusion Kotter has strongly contended that if organizations ignore his eight stage process of affecting major changes, they will not be able to succeed in a competitive global environment. The author has provided helpful tips and guidance through the entire change process outlined by him. It is true that the quality and effectiveness of leadership in any company is more important than the management. It is not surprising that even the best managed companies do make mistakes and end up suffering losses that could be avoided. It is required to have a positive vision and a system whereby people can be guided through the major change processes. This reduces the chances of errors and failures and lesser errors determine the difference between failures and successes. The book is an excellent guide to individuals and businesses to understand and effectively implement the change process. I personally agree with Kotter’s concepts and will use them in my own personal leadership style. I plan to use the change process given in the book as a check list to manage and control change. The concepts may appear to be rigid but the varied steps are adaptable and can be implemented in tandem. Given the large scale transformation taking place in the business world, the book is a very useful tool for everybody including business students and senior management to effectively face the challenges of a globalized world. List of References Kotter, John. (1996). Leading Change, Harvard Business Press. Read More