How urgently do you want change?

I regularly find that Kotter’s 8 principles of change management are incredibly helpful. I would not typically use them as a change management tool within a project or in your day to day work. These principles are brilliant when you have a frustration in your culture or the way your team works together. #LeadershipDevelopment #Coaching #Training #WorkingGenius

• Transcript

  This next few episodes are based on the 8 steps of change management’ by Dr. John Kotter. Being a model from the 90’s, there are plenty of updated models for day to day change management; so I rarely use Kotter’s 8 steps sequentially for change - but I find these principles so helpful in any change.

  Kotter’s first principle is ‘create a sense of urgency’. Honestly, I have had to work hard to do this. I am your low friction guy - I don’t want to create stress in the workplace. However, I have learnt that people don’t change if they are comfortable. If we don’t realise the situation is bad and there is a better future available, we won’t change. In the words of Kotter, we must ‘make the status quo seem more dangerous than launching into the unknown’.

  Do you remember the ‘Blackberry’ phone? In September 2011, Blackberry held a massive twenty percent market share in phone sales. Business people loved the mini keyboards. However complacency set in and they failed to see the need to change their product. In just 5 years the company reduced in size by a whopping seventy five percent! Complacency, maintaining the status quo, or removing the friction can really hurt you. At some juncture, Blackberry undoubtedly reached a moment of realisation, acknowledging that something had gone awry, however they remained complacent.

  Let me ask you. Do you have a frustration or pain point in your organisation, your family or your team? Can you sense the underlying unease, the haunting ache within that group? Imagine allowing that discomfort to persist for another week. Manageable, right? Now, stretch that timeline to five long years. Can you feel the weight of that difficult situation, the burden of that troublesome team member, or the despair of that downward trend sinking in? Hits close to home, doesn't it? If you're grappling with such a pain point, the realisation must be dawning on you — the pressing need to address it. Embrace the unsettling urgency, for within that discomfort lies the impetus for action, the catalyst for change.

  So what can you do about it?

  First, understand that complacency is your greatest enemy if you want genuine change.

  Paint the picture for yourself and for your people. Help them to understand your current trajectory. Help them to see what you won’t achieve.

  Make sure you communicate honestly. Don’t create false scenarios to create fear - this will only hurt your leadership and change efforts in the future.

  If you have a personality that naturally wants to de-stress situations you might need to borrow someone else who can bring that sense of urgency and stress, or you may need to practise how you are going to create urgency in the mirror before you have that meeting.

  If our exercise revealed a problem for you, act now. Without urgency change won’t happen. Talk to someone about it. Set time aside to think through possible solutions. Organise some coaching. Like the civil rights campaigner, Rita Mae Brown said, ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’