Why is change so hard? Because in order to make any transformation successful, you must change more than just the structure and operations of an organisation - you need to change how people behave. This book follows on from Kotter's best selling "Leading Change" and this time focuses on the 'hows' of change.
The core of the matter
Put simply, the fundamental finding from Kotter and Cohen's research is that the central issue for sustainable change is never strategy, structure, culture or systems - however important these undoubtedly are. The core of the matter is changing people's behaviour and this happens when their emotions are engaged.
In this book, the authors consider various change scenarios that have been highly successful and in every case find that what made the difference was not analysis to change people's thinking but being shown a truth that influenced how they felt.
See, Feel, Change
Once people respond emotionally to being shown what needs to change, they are then much more likely to take corresponding action. To make this leap, you need to:
- see the need for change
- feel the reality of the situation and the need to act
- translate emotionally charged ideas into action
The 8 step path to success
The authors say that a successful change effort entails a flow which generally follows eight crucial steps:
- Increase urgency
- Build the guiding team
- Get the Vision right
- Communicate for buy-in
- Empower action
- Create short term wins
- Don't let up
- Make change stick
"Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him."Dwight D. Eisenhower