Kotter's Change Model

Kotter's Change Model Theory

Let's start this explanation by stating why, especially now, companies need to change and adapt:

We are currently in a complicated macroeconomic environment with high inflation and tough competition. As a result, companies face pressure from everywhere; they must be more productive, bring more sales, be more environmentally and socially responsible, etc. Furthermore, some companies face even more challenges and structural changes with downsizing or mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

In other words, companies are pressured to improve and change. But changing a company is not easy, and people often resist those changes. It's why organizations use change management models and techniques to help them.

John P. Kotter developed an effective 8-step model to help companies and leaders implement organizational changes. He first published this model in 1995 in a book called "Leading Change." Since then, Kotter has been considered a leader in organizational change management.²

Application of Kotter's Change Model

As John P. Kotter put it, leading change is a transformation that takes time, it is not an event that happens overnight. It takes a lot of planning and preparation before the transformation itself.

According to Kotter, companies fail to change for various reasons: they need a clear vision and a team to lead the change, but people get too complacent and don't see the urgency to change. That's why he created a model to help those companies operate changes.

Kotter's 8-Step Change Model

As mentioned earlier, Kotter's model of change management has eight steps²:

1. Establishing a sense of urgency - The first step is critical, giving the "kick in the can" and setting the changing process in motion. Everyone must understand why the company needs to change and why it is urgent. People are generally reluctant to change, but if you explain why the organization needs to change and the urgency of the situation, they might be more willing to participate.

2. Creating the guiding coalition - At the center of every change, a team must guide it. Even the best CEO can't make a change of such magnitude alone. That's why they need to gather a group of people that will help guide the change the company will go through. This team should be influential people with power within the organization, expertise, credibility, and leadership positions.

3. Developing a vision and strategy - A vision is essential to the company as it shows where the organization is heading and can motivate people to reach that goal. Nobody knows where the organization is heading without a clear vision, which is demotivating. This vision has to be something that everyone within the organization must work toward and want to achieve.

4. Communicating the change vision - If the company has an excellent vision for the future, everyone must know it and understand that whatever they do is part of that bigger picture. This communication will help them reach that goal. As a result, it's crucial that the management effectively communicate this vision with everyone.

5. Empowering employees for broad-based action - This step is about making the changes within the company to empower people to act and let them participate in the change. The organization needs to train their employee and make the structural changes necessary to allow changes to happen.

6. Generating short-term wins - Sometimes, a great vision might seem far away, like an unreachable goal. It can be demotivating to see that reaching a goal will only be possible in years. That's why it's important to create short-term goals that the organization can reach. Those short-term wins are a sign of progress that the company is moving in the right direction.

7. Consolidating gains and producing more change - Once you start the change process, you should always continue the work towards the final goal. You must ensure that you make progress every day and that people notice it. Otherwise, people might get complacent and stop moving towards that goal.

8. Anchoring new approaches in the culture - Once changes are made, it's essential to ensure that the company doesn't return to its old ways; otherwise, all the work done so far would be wasted. The organization must anchor those changes to the company's culture.

Kotter's 8-Step Change Model Example

Let's take a hypothetical example of a company that creates chemical products. It's a hazardous job, and accidents occur from time to time. A new CEO came into that company when an employee, unfortunately, passed away due to an accident in the factory. The new management decided to implement a zero-accident policy to ensure that this accident will never happen again.

1. Establishing a sense of urgency - The new CEO organized an emergency meeting with all the company's leaders to analyze the incident. They quickly realized that the worker didn't follow the safety procedure; if they had done so, the incident wouldn't have happened. Some might argue that it's the worker's fault, but the CEO stated that this accident is a shared responsibility, that it is in everyone's hands, and that they need to change the company to ensure it doesn't happen again.

2. Creating the guiding coalition - After this meeting, the CEO starts to gather a special team from every department and level of the organization. Those are all influential and respected people within the company. Most importantly, they are all motivated and want to reduce the number of accidents within the company.

3. Developing a vision and strategy - The CEO's goal is simple; they want the company to have no major accidents within three years. To reach this goal, the CEO believes that it's not only the worker's responsibility but the company culture that must change at every level. Their goal is that everyone within the company becomes obsessed with safety.

4. Communicating the change vision - The CEO organized a big meeting with everyone in the company and shared the vision in a way that could not be challenged (who would argue against working in safer conditions?). The CEO also adds that all the new safety processes that will be implemented and seem more time-consuming will be safer and save the organization time and money in the long run, as they will help avoid future accidents.

5. Empowering employees for broad-based action - The CEO hires new people to redesign all their safety procedures, welcomes feedback, and even rewards employees who find new ways to improve safety. The company also gives more safety training to all the employees, installs new, safer materials, and even changes the company's structure.

6. Generating short-term wins - Thankfully, not all accidents are mortal; some are quite small but still do count as an incident. The company decided to rate incidents in minor, moderate, and serious categories. The company used to have one serious incident, 20 moderate incidents, and 100 minor incidents per month. The CEO then set challenging monthly goals to reduce the number of monthly incidents - e.g., 0 serious incidents, 10 moderate incidents, and 50 small incidents. The CEO will lower the bar for those incidents until they reach their objective of 0.

7. Consolidating gains and producing more change - The company sees significant improvement and a considerable reduction in incidents. Whenever a new incident occurs, it's an opportunity to create a new procedure, make further changes, and ensure everyone follows those new rules. The company mustn't allow people to get complacent.

8. Anchoring new approaches in the culture - Once the company finally reach its target of 0 incident, it must continue its work and promote safety.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Kotter's Change Model

As with every change management, there are advantages but also disadvantages in Kotter's change model that you must be aware of before trying to implement it within your organization:

Changes are a natural part of evolution; we shouldn't necessarily fear or resist them but try to make the most out of them. Some management theories, like Lewin's or Kotter's eight steps model, can help organizations make changes and evolve.