Kotter’s Eight Steps

Kotter’s eight steps provide a framework for leading organizational change. The firm distinguishes the original linear model from its later accelerators for continuing change. The current activities should not be read as a universal, one-time sequence whose boxes can be permanently closed.

• Create urgency: establish a credible reason and opportunity for action.
• Build a guiding coalition: bring committed people together to guide and coordinate the work.
• Form a strategic vision: connect a desired future with initiatives that could achieve it.
• Enlist participation: involve people who want to contribute to that direction.
• Remove barriers: address obstacles that prevent useful action across the organization.
• Generate short-term wins: identify and communicate credible early results.
• Sustain acceleration: use progress to continue improving structures and practices.
• Institute change: connect behavior to results and align management practices to sustain it.

Use the activities together

For a technology proposal, a credible purpose can guide participation; participants can expose obstacles; early trials can test whether a proposed remedy works. Their results may require revisiting the vision or the support arrangements. These are application examples, not an assertion that every organization must follow that exact causal sequence. A coalition also needs access to valid decisions and resources: enthusiasm does not confer procurement, staffing, or operational authority.

In a fictional utility, a scheduling project closed at launch without a continuing adoption owner. Six months later, an audit found 40 percent field-direct closure of work orders; the other completed orders went through paper and later re-entry. That was a later observation, not a measured launch result. The example gives particular attention to early results and continued support, but neither substitutes for a workable field process, participation, or a credible purpose.

Manufactured urgency can damage trust, and a vision document does not establish agreement or execution. Likewise, an early rise in usage does not alone establish durable benefits. Examine the observations behind the assessment and continue reviewing unresolved conditions. Project closure may coexist with accepted operating ownership; a go-live event alone cannot show that behavior will persist. ADKAR adds an individual-change perspective. The Training Was Delivered and Nothing Changed connects both models to managers, concerns, workflow measures, and continuing review.

References

• Kotter, The 8-Step Process for Leading Change