Winning at Change - Essay Example

Summary of John Kotter’s (1998) essay Winning at Change Paradoxically change is a constant. Life changes by the minute, evolution is ongoing, and there is no such thing as static. In business too stagnation means the road to end. Therefore change is also a necessity to retain competitive advantage. John Kotter (1998) notes that since change is necessary to move forward, the business leaders must master the art of managing change. The most important feature of change is communication. There may exist an exemplary vision and skilled manpower that can rise to the occasion and achieve the objectives, but in the absence of proper communications the vision will remain unrealized.

The ingredients for good communication are that it needs to be direct and personal and not lean through memos; it should be correct as a precise message produces best results; euphoria is to be avoided at small achievements and the larger goal must be pursued relentlessly until realized; and the blame game must be abandoned. To avoid the above mistakes three tasks are suggested; managing multiple timelines, building coalitions and creating a vision. Change programmes should have a large spread with timeline for each segment.

Within this smaller goals are easier to understand and become achievable. Effective partnerships must be built with various stakeholders first by engaging the right persons within the organisation for each job and then making strategic partnerships to cement relations with outsiders. Teamwork is essential and forming a winning team means building confidences and delegating authority. The vision is the binding force and it must be meaningful and beneficial for everyone. The intentions must be clear; ambitious but practical.

Conflicts between stakeholders must be resolved through give and take, keeping the vision in mind. An organisation has leaders at all levels and each one performs the universal task of explaining the vision and encouraging others to step up their efforts in achieving them. Leadership is critical in change management and a leader is dynamic and caring and the organisational transformation depends entirely on them. A successful transformation requires eight steps. First a hard look at ground realities of market conditions, potential crises or opportunities will establish the need and the urgency for transformation.

Secondly, forging coalitions or partnerships and encouraging teamwork to ensure smooth functioning. Thirdly, a clear vision is required to create motives and strategies. Fourthly, the effective communication of vision through any mean is necessary to galvanize actions. Next, people must be empowered and barriers and obstacles must be removed; thinking out of the box should be encouraged. In between, the vision needs to be broken down into small segments and each achievement should be recognised and rewarded as encouragement.

The seventh step is to review the process and rejuvenate it with fresh ideas and new people to strengthen the change process and take it to higher levels. Lastly, since change is a constant, evaluate and enunciate new behaviours and culture changes and relate them with each other and show that it benefits everyone. The role of the leader is to cultivate and promote changes and to groom qualified successors ensuring continued pursuit of the competitive advantage. A change is entirely dependant on Leaders but it is to be carefully planned and executed.

There are no shortcuts and perseverance as well as persistence is the only course an inspirational Leader must pursue relentlessly.