John Kotter’s 8 common mistakes on why business transformations fail
Change is hard because it seems easy to achieve. With rapid advances in technology and shifts in the way we work and communicate, mixed with the pressures of modern-day society, understanding how to influence change is becoming critical for organisations that wish to win in competitive markets. Many theories over the years have paved the way for us to better understand change and its role in successful businesses. Among these, John Kotter’s Leading Change has become prolific in the way we think about the topic, becoming a part of many MBA syllabises and acting as a guiding compass for leaders around the world. Kotter mentions 8 common mistakes that organisations make that prevent them from effective transformations. His 8-step model for change is a direct answer to each of these specific errors. Our team at Rarepublic will attempt to distil these thoughts whilst providing our own commentary on its practical application in modern-day business.
Kotter emphasises the need to create a high “sense of urgency in fellow managers and employees,” to create an environment receptive to change. He stresses that those in leadership positions “overestimate how much they can force big changes on an organisational level”. He also mentions that managers “underestimate” how hard it is to drive individuals out of their comfort zones. Creating urgency inspires employees to make specific changes on an individual level. It forces them to upskill, break bad habits and positively influence their coworkers around them. Complacency is a slippery slope for any organisation, leading to a drain on creative thinking. innovation and employee productivity. “Without a sense of urgency, people won’t give that extra effort that is often essential”.
“No matter how competent or charismatic, never have all the assets needed to overcome tradition and inertia except in very small organizations”. Kotter explains that you often need a team of strong voices inside an organisation that understand and appreciate the changes you wish to make to drive conceptual ideas to implementation. This team should have access to resources and the ability to influence. He goes on to suggest that weak committees and coalitions are less effective, leading to frustrations and “countervailing” forces that undermine reengineering initiatives.
“Lack of vision can lead to “confusing, incompatible, and time-consuming projects”. Kotter stresses the link between vision and efficiency and that by being able to clearly communicate your vision of change within an organisation helps employees assign context to their day-to-day, less than exciting tasks. Change can seem threatening, resulting in individuals clustering together quietly, manipulating situations, to counteract innovative ideas. With a clear vision however, individuals within a team can begin to understand why these changes are necessary. You can bring employees into the conversation, allowing them to contribute a collaborative vision for the change.
“Without credible communication, and a lot of it, employees; hearts and minds are never captured”. Kotter explains that the day-to-day habits of an employee are created during stable times. These habits are often harder to break as they are deep rooted into the employee’s psyche. This is usually common in already established businesses, that have frameworks that do the job, but can be improved upon and refined. He also suggests that employees must be willing to make “short-term sacrifices” to make changes stick and that without proper communication, employees will see no need to do so.
New initiatives fail far too often when employees, even though they embrace a new vision, feel disempowered by huge obstacles in their paths”. Change often leads to new, undiscovered challenges that can come with their own set of obstacles. Teams can quickly feel overwhelmed by these challenges as they strike immediate friction in existing workflows. Employees may lack self-belief in developing new skills or may lack motivation to change the way they currently work. These responses are natural but can act as barriers that prevent change from taking shape. Effective leaders help employees see past these barriers and inspire them to get out of their own way to adopt new strategies that improve their productivity.
Change can take months, or even years to manifest. It is a complicated journey that requires patience, consistency, and frequent communication. Without checkpoints and moments of celebrating small-wins employees often see a dip in morale. “Employees give up or actively join the resistance”, which results in long-term changes failing to stick to become a part of the culture of a company. Kotter emphasises the need to celebrate short-term wins to provide “evidence” to employees of these changes producing positive results. Without any validation or proof of change, it becomes harder to anchor these changes to the culture of the company.
Kotter states that “premature victory celebration stops all momentum” unwinding the gradual progress made from high-quality problems. He illustrates through an anecdote the number of reasons why a victory is often declared too soon. The time it takes to make a change as well as the fatigue on both an employee and manager level, can seduce even the smartest change leaders to press pause on the efforts. Kotter emphasises that most of these problems arise when the correct foundations are not in place. He refers to his earlier points such as a lack of urgency, a strong coalition and vision as catalysts for declaring a victory too soon. A premature victory gives permission to employees to slowly revert to their old traditions, which undermine the initial efforts for transformation. It also makes it harder to establish these in the future should a new change imitative be raised.
Kotter summarises these errors by stating that change only sticks when it “seeps into the very bloodstream of the work unit or corporate body”. When these changes become almost automatic. He mentions that these changes require sufficient time to be taken on and stresses the need for the next generation of management to “personify the new approach”. He talks about empathy and how it is needed to help shape the very corporate culture that drives these changes.
Many of Kotter’s concerns exist in businesses today yet some of these concerns are becoming harder to manage due to advancements in technology. With remote working on the rise, managers must develop new and innovative ways to create the right type of urgency within employees. With an abundance of choice in skilled employees through the emergence of the gig economy, as well as software advancements such as artificial intelligence, leaders can easily be seduced to make frequent changes to gain competitive advantages, only to deliver short-term results. We believe that now more than ever, leadership is being put to the test and is the anchor that drives positive change. A leader that is proficient in communication, and encourages employees to do better, whilst maintaining a healthy sense of urgency, will ultimately build strong coalitions that will help drive their organisation forward.
Source: Leading Change: An Action Plan from the World's Foremost Expert on Business Leadership, John Kotter, Harvard Business Press, 1996.
