In his book, “Leading Change” (http://tinyurl.com/z6reejl), John P Kotter describes a series of steps that he recommends can help leaders that are introducing and shepherding organizational change. While these actions don’t guarantee as successful evolution (no such universal assurance exists), I have found that understanding and utilizing the actions has been extremely useful in the transformations that Silicon Prairie Solutions has been involved with. If fact, when we find organizations that are are struggling to incorporate a new way of thinking and working (as is the case when introducing a model like the Scaled Agile Framework) the root cause of the challenges can often be found in the absence of one of Kotter’s recommended points.
Kotter’s steps are as follows:
- Establish a sense of urgency
- Build a guiding coalition
- Develop the vision and strategy
- Communicate the vision
- Empower employees for broad based action
- Generate short term wins
- Consolidate gains and produce more wins
- Anchor approaches in the new culture
The usefulness of a model like the Scaled Agile Framework (www.scaledagileframework.com) cannot be denied. It provides clarity on roles, responsibilities, ceremonies and artifacts that are crucial when changing a large system. However, the model alone is not enough. Understanding ‘how’ the model can be incorporated and getting some assistance in ‘doing’ the change related work is as equally critical.
Silicon Prairie Solutions is creating a downloadable PDF that will offer some insights to each of these steps, some specific actions and reflections on each that will be made available to our visitors.