Leading Change, With a New Preface by the Author

If you're part of any digital transformation or general change, the 8 step model remains a great tool to teach, learn and execute through the process.

I was somewhat concerned that this book might be outdated, but I was wrong. Great read. Easy to follow. My brain is firing on all cylinders as I evaluate where to start with my organization.

Leading Change from Kotter is one of the classics on modern change management and it is a pretty good book. Though, definitively not perfect and it does, in my opinion, have a bit a 'traditional management' taste to it. But, well, as that is probably practices in the majority of the companies, I can't blame this book for it.Leading change is fairly short, a bit less than 200 pages. It consists of 3 different parts: 1) The change problem and its solution (or it could be called "overview"), 2) The eight-stage process, 3) Implication for the twenty-first century.The first part consists of 2 small chapters. The first cover why organizations fail with their change efforts and it provides eight mistakes (which is basically the reverse of his later proposal). In the second chapter, Kotter introduces his 8-step change process for managing change in an organization.The eight steps are also the eight chapters of part 2. They are:- Establish a Sense of Urgency- Creating a Guiding Coalition- Developer a Vision and Strategy- Communicating the Change Vision- Empowering Employees for Broad-Based Action- Generating Short-Term Wins- Consolidating Gains and Producing More Change- Anchoring New Approaches in the Culture.Each of the chapters in Part 2 describe the change step, why it is needed and give some advise and stories about the change.The third and last chapter speculated about the future and how change is becoming more and more important.All in all, the book was actually pretty good (better than I had expected, as I was familiar with the basic content already). It is well-written and in quite a convincing way. I did get uncomfortable at times, these were mainly about 3 assumptions that I felt throughout the book. 1) The enormous focus on 'leadership' which, I believe, somewhat misses the point of building an environment in which all people flourish (and yes, you might say the leader does it, but why not all people? Isn't it just caring?). 2) A lot of focus on "top-down" change rather than grass-roots change and with it a lot of focus on traditional management roles, and 3) A lot of focus on BIG change efforts over many small ones (many small ones is more a Kaizen spirit). It felt in line with the "big project" and "re-engineering" thinking rather than the view of gradual change. Anyways, all three of these are to be expected and as the book has a clear focus/audience, it doesn't matter too much.Thus, a good book on traditional change management and worst reading from that perspective. It wasn't an *aha* book for me, it was just good. For that reason, I'll stick with 4 stars. Pretty good.

This was a very enjoyable business book to read. It was short and concise, which is a breath of fresh air for business books. Some books are very repetitive and filled with examples which can be exhausting to read as the same points are made over and over again. In this book, the points are succinct and the examples simple. The focus is on the need for leadership, the steps for change, and the hard work needed to go through those steps. No sugar coating here!I think this is a great book for anyone working in a corporate environment. Leaders about to embark on a large change effort or those at any level who are in the middle of such change.I would recommend this book because it is honest, straightforward and thought provoking. It is an easy and interesting read.

What does it mean to be a change leader? In times of fiscal upheaval, can a state agency stay true to its mission and vision? Or, must these be sacrificed on the altar of efficiency to the (presumably) lean God of Economy? These are the challenges that confront our elected representatives, agencies that serve the public, unions that represent the workforce, and their constituencies.In "Leading Change," John Kotter reveals his Eight-Stage Process of Creating Major Change:1. Establishing a Sense of Urgency2. Creating the Guiding Coalition3. Developing a Vision and Strategy4. Communicating the Change Vision5. Empowering Broad-Based Action6. Generating Short-Term Wins7. Consolidating Gains and Producing More Change8. Anchoring New Approaches in the CultureIn Kotter's experience, neglecting any one stage undermines and imperils the entire change effort.So it is clear that change is coming. It always does. Particular change can be envisioned in an instant but implementation can take some time. This is especially true in large, complex organizations like government bureaucracies, with highly interdependent structures and systems. Serving the public is a process and jobs are maintained to provide the service. Nearly every process in one system is connected to many other systems, and one change will, of necessity, affect changes to hundreds or thousands of processes. To say that change requires hard work and sacrifice in this environment is an understatement.Change in a government bureaucracy requires a seismic shift in thinking by those who have been working at the same agency for decades, especially those who really believe they have made a difference for the public good. "We have always done it this way so why change now?" Their contributions provide valuable lessons but time marches on. Not only are policies and procedures not cast in stone, but future generations deserve the right to have them evolve. Whether they evolve for the better -or not--is the responsibility of the change agent... basically, you and I.By definition, government services "serve" the public. The way government serves the public today could not have been envisaged at its founding. America has had some time to think about and see some good ideas become reality. We have codified them, managed them, regulated them, raised revenue from them, underwritten, audited, overseen the audit, re-codified, re-managed, re-regulated, created increasingly complex financing mechanisms, then audited everything again.... It is only natural that before long, the original idea... the "mission" and "vision" becomes lost in the risk averting, litigious-avoiding (though interconnected) world of bureaucratic government. How do you empower interdependent agencies with different functional missions to work seamlessly together? What can a workforce do when it is saddled with legally mandated interconnected systems that do not fulfill the mission or vision of the agency but are relics of an earlier era, or simply symptoms of jurisdictional overreach?For change to really happen and take hold in a governmental bureaucracy, with organizational structures and personnel performing different functions and serving different (sometimes opposing) constituencies, and systems of supports and services serving a large and growing base of populations, the change must produce benefits and personal satisfactions that are superior to the way things are today.Today it will take more than the desire to "do more with less," or even to "do more, better." Indeed, the organizational culture itself must be changed. Purging unnecessary interconnections can ultimately make a transformation not only possible, but easier. It may not be necessary to consolidate agencies when it would be more efficient to coordinate them instead. Streamline procedures and approval processes by putting systems in place that satisfy regulatory requirements and align with the agency's mission. Government and unions can be powerful allies to responsibly empower a highly trained public workforce. The wins must be real, and they must come soon. Paraphrasing Kotter, "Truly adaptive governmental bodies with adaptive cultures are awesome competitive machines."At a visceral level, you have to appreciate change, respect it, embrace it... lead it. "Leading Change" reminds us that change starts with you and me.