Leading Change : Why Transformation Efforts Fail / John P. Kotter

Businesses hoping to survive over the long term must, at some point, remake themselves into stronger competitors. These efforts have been labelled in many ways—total quality management, reengineering, rightsizing, restructuring, cultural change, and turnarounds, to name a few. In nearly all cases, the objective has been to respond to a new and more demanding marketplace by altering how business is conducted.

Some of these initiatives have been highly successful; some have been complete failures. Most fall somewhere in between, tending towards the lower end of the performance scale.

John P. Kotter is renowned for his work on leading organisational change. At the time of the article’s original publication in 1995, he had just completed a ten-year study of more than 100 companies attempting major transformations. In this piece, he presents the results of his observations, outlining the eight most common errors that derail such efforts and explaining the broader lessons that support successful change.

Failed transitions almost always falter in at least one of the following areas: generating a sense of urgency, establishing a powerful guiding coalition, developing a clear vision, communicating that vision frequently and effectively, removing obstacles, planning for and achieving short-term wins, avoiding premature declarations of victory, and embedding new approaches within the corporate culture.

Kotter emphasises that recognising the typically lengthy nature of organisational change can significantly enhance the likelihood of success.