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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
medium-paced
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
It is the face of leadership. I really enjoyed reading this book. A lot of helpful tips without being overwhelming. It forces you to define leadership outside of management. Definitely one to re-read.
~Erika
~Erika
If you want to change something and there's more than a few people involved this is one of the books you ought to have read. The author helped with/ watched a lot of changes in big organizations and wrote his experience down here. Neatly categorized in an 8 step process which he is convinced you need to go through when you implement a change.
I have no clue whether that 8 step approach is the only valid way to go through a change - and I didn't find any compelling evidence in the book either. A lot of what he writes makes sense, though. Like: create (real) early successes and keep em coming to get the ball rolling. Do the cultural shizzle last - it's not going to change anyhow if there's not some hard evidence that working differently actually works.
Another reason to read this is that it's considered a classic, which means that a lot of people you're working with when changing things will have read it. And a common vocabulary/ reference is handy in those situations.
I have no clue whether that 8 step approach is the only valid way to go through a change - and I didn't find any compelling evidence in the book either. A lot of what he writes makes sense, though. Like: create (real) early successes and keep em coming to get the ball rolling. Do the cultural shizzle last - it's not going to change anyhow if there's not some hard evidence that working differently actually works.
Another reason to read this is that it's considered a classic, which means that a lot of people you're working with when changing things will have read it. And a common vocabulary/ reference is handy in those situations.
informative
slow-paced
This is a useful book, mercifully direct and short for a business book. And I find the eight-stage process for leading organizational change compelling. Highly recommended for leaders who want to increase the chances of success for a major organizational change — or for those who want to understand reasons why changes fail.
I am forcing myself to get through this book because it was recommended by our director. I hate reading business books but I try to do it because I want to be a better manager. There are a few I have gained some great insights from. This book is not one of those. It is boring, painful and I am speed reading as fast as I can. I read another business book by this author recently that I thought was clever and interesting. Not the case for this one.
John Kotter’s Leading Change is every bit as relevant today as when he wrote this in 1996. There are so many take-away lessons in this book, I know I will be coming back to it for more.
Kotter is a world-famous expert on leadership and the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus at the Harvard Business School. He is also a graduate of MIT and Harvard.
His eight-step process for change management and strategy execution helps organizations to drive change and reach sustainable results.
(These two terms have been over-used and abused. You'll find them with a quick glance on most LinkedIn profiles. It's hard to see the meaning of these terms when they are so overused in today's world, but this is one of the reasons why this book is still so relevant after all this time.)
Each step of his process is outlined in detail with a focus on identifying where things go wrong during the change process and what changes are necessary for a organization to achieve its goals. The eight steps are:
1. Establish a sense of urgency
2. Create the guiding coalition, which includes a group of people with enough power to make change happen and getting everyone to work together as a team
3. Develop a vision and strategy to help direct and achieve the vision
4. Communicate the change vision that includes a guiding coalition role model to correct behavior
5. Empower broad-based action by getting rid of obstacles and changing systems that undermine the new vision. Encourage risk-taking and non-traditional ideas. (YES!)
6. Generate short-term wins and visibly recognize and reward people who make wins possible
7. Consolidate gains and produce more change
8. Anchor new approaches in the culture
There is a lot to be said about these eight steps, but this is Kotter's process in a nutshell and his points make a lot of sense, especially in today's fast-paced world.
Leading Change is the best book I've read on the topic of leadership.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from Leading Change:
“Management is a set of processes that can keep a complicated system of people and technology running smoothly. The most important aspects of management include planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, controlling, and problem solving. Leadership is a set of processes that creates organizations in the first place or adapts them to significantly changing circumstances. Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles”
“Whenever smart and well-intentioned people avoid confronting obstacles, they disempower employees and undermine change.”
“Management is a set of processes that can keep a complicated system of people and technology running smoothly. The most important aspects of management include planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, controlling, and problem solving. Leadership is a set of processes that creates organizations in the first place or adapts them to significantly changing circumstances. Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles”
“Employees in large, older firms often have difficulty getting a transformation process started because of the lack of leadership coupled with arrogance, insularity, and bureaucracy.”
“If you cannot describe your vision to someone in five minutes and get their interest, you have more work to do in this phase of a transformation process.”
“We need to become less like an elephant and more like a customer-friendly Tyrannosaurus rex.”
Kotter is a world-famous expert on leadership and the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus at the Harvard Business School. He is also a graduate of MIT and Harvard.
His eight-step process for change management and strategy execution helps organizations to drive change and reach sustainable results.
(These two terms have been over-used and abused. You'll find them with a quick glance on most LinkedIn profiles. It's hard to see the meaning of these terms when they are so overused in today's world, but this is one of the reasons why this book is still so relevant after all this time.)
Each step of his process is outlined in detail with a focus on identifying where things go wrong during the change process and what changes are necessary for a organization to achieve its goals. The eight steps are:
1. Establish a sense of urgency
2. Create the guiding coalition, which includes a group of people with enough power to make change happen and getting everyone to work together as a team
3. Develop a vision and strategy to help direct and achieve the vision
4. Communicate the change vision that includes a guiding coalition role model to correct behavior
5. Empower broad-based action by getting rid of obstacles and changing systems that undermine the new vision. Encourage risk-taking and non-traditional ideas. (YES!)
6. Generate short-term wins and visibly recognize and reward people who make wins possible
7. Consolidate gains and produce more change
8. Anchor new approaches in the culture
There is a lot to be said about these eight steps, but this is Kotter's process in a nutshell and his points make a lot of sense, especially in today's fast-paced world.
Leading Change is the best book I've read on the topic of leadership.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from Leading Change:
“Management is a set of processes that can keep a complicated system of people and technology running smoothly. The most important aspects of management include planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, controlling, and problem solving. Leadership is a set of processes that creates organizations in the first place or adapts them to significantly changing circumstances. Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles”
“Whenever smart and well-intentioned people avoid confronting obstacles, they disempower employees and undermine change.”
“Management is a set of processes that can keep a complicated system of people and technology running smoothly. The most important aspects of management include planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, controlling, and problem solving. Leadership is a set of processes that creates organizations in the first place or adapts them to significantly changing circumstances. Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles”
“Employees in large, older firms often have difficulty getting a transformation process started because of the lack of leadership coupled with arrogance, insularity, and bureaucracy.”
“If you cannot describe your vision to someone in five minutes and get their interest, you have more work to do in this phase of a transformation process.”
“We need to become less like an elephant and more like a customer-friendly Tyrannosaurus rex.”
Leading Change is a somewhat dated, but still valuable and timely book that explores John Kotter’s views on the essentials of leading organizational change, as informed by his experiences with numerous companies. His eight stage process of change leadership has been referenced in numerous textbooks, and has become a source of insight for many managers and companies desiring to change the way they meet their environment and competition.
The eight-stage process includes the following:
1. Establish a sense of urgency to gain the necessary cooperation in the change effort.
2. Create a powerful guiding coalition, which will be necessary to sustain the process.
3. Develop a vision and strategy – the vision to establish a direction, cause, and alignment toward those ends, and a strategy to make it all feasible.
4. Communicate the change vision to generate understanding and common ground.
5. Empower employees for broad-based action to involve more people, in more powerful ways, in the change effort.
6. Generate short-term wins to provide convincing evidence that the effort is worth continuing.
7. Consolidate gains and then produce more change to maintain urgency and weaken resistance.
8. Anchor new approaches in the organization’s culture to ensure that they become the accepted way of doing things.
It has been said that the one constant is change, and nowhere is this more true than in today’s business environment. To be able to survive and thrive in an environment that appears to be more dynamic each year, companies will need to be able to institute sweeping change from time to time, and incremental (but substantive) change almost constantly. Understanding how that is to be accomplished will be key, and the counsel in Kotter’s book is therefore an important addition to any organizational leader’s repertoire.
The eight-stage process includes the following:
1. Establish a sense of urgency to gain the necessary cooperation in the change effort.
2. Create a powerful guiding coalition, which will be necessary to sustain the process.
3. Develop a vision and strategy – the vision to establish a direction, cause, and alignment toward those ends, and a strategy to make it all feasible.
4. Communicate the change vision to generate understanding and common ground.
5. Empower employees for broad-based action to involve more people, in more powerful ways, in the change effort.
6. Generate short-term wins to provide convincing evidence that the effort is worth continuing.
7. Consolidate gains and then produce more change to maintain urgency and weaken resistance.
8. Anchor new approaches in the organization’s culture to ensure that they become the accepted way of doing things.
It has been said that the one constant is change, and nowhere is this more true than in today’s business environment. To be able to survive and thrive in an environment that appears to be more dynamic each year, companies will need to be able to institute sweeping change from time to time, and incremental (but substantive) change almost constantly. Understanding how that is to be accomplished will be key, and the counsel in Kotter’s book is therefore an important addition to any organizational leader’s repertoire.