Winning at change

✍ Scribed by John P. Kotter

• Book ID: 102473130
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Weight: 469 KB
• Volume: 1998
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1087-8149
• DOI: 10.1002/ltl.40619981009

✦ Synopsis

To cope with new technological, competitive, and demographic forces, lead-N ers in every sector have sought to fundamentally alter the way their organizations do business. These change efforts have paraded under many banners-total quahty management, reengineering, restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, turnarounds.

Yet according to most assessments, few of these efforts accomplish their goals. Fewer than 15 of the 100 or more companies I have studied have successfully transformed themselves. The particulars of every case vary, but I have found that the change process involves eight critical stages (see box, page 29). Mismanaging any one of these steps can undermine an otherwise well-conceived vision, but four mistakes in particular are the source of most failures.