Kotter’s Change Management Model

Organizational change management has become an increasingly popular leadership topic over the years. Many have failed at successfully changing organizations and as a result, many methodologies have emerged to guide proven change management best practices. Kotter (2012) outlines his eight-step approach to organizational change management. Kotter expressly urges leaders to follow in order, without skipping any of the steps. The steps that he outlines include “establishing a sense of urgency; creating the guiding coalition; developing a vision and strategy; communicating the change vision; empowering broad-based action; generating short-term wins; consolidating gains and producing more change; and anchoring new approaches in culture” (p. 23).

Resistance to change is one of the obstacles to overcome when leadership attempts to enact organizational change. Breitkopf (2019) states that “change is a complicated problem, and there are no easy solutions for overcoming change resistance. Leadership and PM [Project Management] skills can provide tools to attack the problem in an organized way” (p. 162). However, the steps outlined in Kotter’s methodology are intended to minimize and deal with this resistance through proven activities.

The model presented by Kotter creates not only an awareness to combat resistance, but an excitement at multiple levels of the organization. Each step builds upon the previous by bringing clarity and awareness of what is coming as well as steps to measure and continue success. Even the identification of milestones within this change can bring smaller opportunities to celebrate success. Some changes can take more time and these celebrations can renew interest and drive around the change.

These milestones are important, but there is more to Kotter’s model than completing the execution of the change management process. The completion of the change project is not the completion of Kotter’s eight steps. Cementing the changes into a newly developed culture ensures that this new way of work is the only way the company does it.

Kotter’s Methodology in Practice

Kotter’s model for change management isn’t prescriptive to a single industry but has been tested in many over the years. Haas et al. (2018) explain that “although Kotter’s change management model (KCMM) was originally described in the corporate context, it has been applied previously to human service and educational organizations” (p. 66). Many other industries have also leveraged this system and documented the outcomes.

Healthcare Industry

One such industry where Kotter’s methodology has been evaluated is healthcare. Baloh et al. (2018) studied the effectiveness of the eight-step model in the “implementation of team huddles in eight hospitals” (p. 572). The results did show the effectiveness of Kotter’s model, but cautions that other change management processes can still be effective in single-unit change situations. It also pointed out that some facilities were able to get positive results when skipping steps, which Kotter (2012) warns against. This scenario simply questions the emphasis that Kotter placed on the order of the steps that were given.

Libraries

Additionally, Kotter’s model was evaluated in the transformation of two library systems. Wheeler and Holmes (2017) document this transformation from the planning of the change until the execution and evaluation of the outcome. This model proved to be successful for the directors and something that they pass on to employees to ensure that the culture of change is enabled within their libraries.

Why Kotter’s Model?

Many different methodologies can be applied when attempting to make a change within an organization. Kotter’s model is one that has been proven in multiple industries and has stood the test of time. Kotter (2012) does mention that this model is even more relevant as time progresses due to the ever-increasing pace of change in each industry. This will be a consideration that will need to be evaluated when studying the other change management models that are popular today.

References

Baloh, J., Zhu, X., & Ward, M. M. (2018). Implementing team huddles in small rural hospitals: How does the Kotter model of change apply? Journal of Nursing Management, 26(5), 571-578. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12584

Breitkopf, M. (2018). But this is how we have always done it: Overcoming resistance to change in the quest to support distance learners. Journal of Library & Information Services in Distance Learning, 12(3-4), 148-164. https://doi-org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.1080/1533290X.2018.1498627

Haas, M., Munzer, B. W., Santen, S. A., Hopson, L. R., Haas, N. L., Overbeek, D., Peterson, W. J., Cranford, J. A., & Huang, R. D. (2019). #DidacticsRevolution: Applying Kotter's 8-step change management model to residency didactics. The Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, 21(1), 65–70. https://doi.org/10.5811/westjem.2019.11.44510

Kotter, J.P. (2012). Leading change. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business School Press.

Wheeler, T. R., & Holmes, K. L. (2017). Rapid transformation of two libraries using Kotter's eight steps of change. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 105(3), 276-281. https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2017.97