This document provides an overview of Kotter's 8-step change model for managing organizational change. It begins with an introduction to change management and discusses why managing change is important. It then describes each of Kotter's 8 steps in detail: 1) create urgency, 2) form a coalition, 3) create a vision, 4) communicate the vision, 5) empower action, 6) create short-term wins, 7) build on change, and 8) anchor changes in the culture. For each step, it provides strategies for implementation and discusses potential pitfalls. Overall, the document serves as a guide to applying Kotter's model in an organizational change effort.

1. European Masters in Project Management
Change Management Models
Kotter’s 8 step change Model
Author: Ujjwal Kumar Joshi
Date: May 20, 2013

2. Table of Contents
Introduction to change management----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1
Kotter’s 8 step Change Model -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2
Create a Sense of Urgency --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4
Form a Powerful guiding Coalition ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4
Create a Change Vision-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5
Communicate and share the vision ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6
Enable Action-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6
Create Short-term Wins------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7
Do not Let up -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------8
Make It Stick --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------9
Benefits of Kotter’s model------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------9
Limitations of Kotter’s model------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 10
Application of Kotter’s model------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 11
Conclusion------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 12
References------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 13

3. 1
Introduction to change management
The term “Change Management” is a way to describe the approach that the organization uses to apply
control over the changes that are either planned or unplanned. Change occurs continually, whether
beneficial or not so beneficial for the business organization, but the organization has to tackle with those
changing situations. The way how the organization tackles with those changing situations determines the
success and failure of the organization. Moreover, in today’s competitive business world, all the business or
strategic processes of any organization requires changes in order to meet the growing customer’s demand
so, change management is one of the major issue for the business organizations.
Change Management in the organization is defined as “ongoing adjustment of the corporate strategies and
structures to cope up with the changing organizational objectives”. According to the Change Management
Learning Center, a direct correlation exists between managing change and the success of the project or the
business. As stated in the above paragraph that the changes should be dealt properly, all the business
companies tackle the changes by using various change management models. But, among the lists of Change
Management Models, following are the most renowned models most of the companies rely upon:
1. Lewin’s Change Management Model
2. McKinsey 7-S Model
3. Kotter’s 8 Step Change Model.
Change Management plays an important role in any organization since the task of managing change is not an
easy one. Managing change refers to “making a change in a systematic and planned way“. Changes in the
organization or a project can be initiated from within the organization or externally. For example, if a
product is popular among the customers may undergo a change in design based on the triggering factor like
a competitive product from some other manufacturer. This is an example of external factor that triggers a
change within the organization. Managing these changes come under change management.
The change process could also be considered as a problem solving situation. The change that is taking place
could be the result of a problem that has occurred. Problem is a situation that requires some action to be
taken positively to handle that situation. The change process could be considered as a problem solving
action for a particular situation.
Hence, change management plays an important role in an organization. In order to successfully react to
windows of opportunity, regardless of the focus — innovation, growth, culture, cost structure, technology —
a new methodology of change leadership is required.
Organizational change occurs when a company makes a transition from its current state to some desired
future state. Managing organizational change is the process of planning and implementing change in
organizations in such a way as to minimize employee resistance and cost to the organization while
simultaneously maximizing the effectiveness of the change effort.

4. 2
In order to manage and accept the change, the situation must be handled properly by using various Change
management Models. Here, we are going to describe the Kotter’s 8 Step Change Model.
Kotter’s 8 step Change Model
During the 1990’s, John Kotter, a professor at Harvard Business School and world-renowned change expert,
studied the progress of over 100 companies who were trying to “remake” themselves. He found that there
were some general lessons that could be learned about managing change, and in particular how to avoid big
errors. Kotter introduced his findings in his book “Leading Change” in 1995 in 8 steps for leading change.
He investigated over 100 companies trying to make fundamental changes to cope up with a new and
challenging market environment including small and large organizations from Ford and British Airways to
Landmark communication. Among these companies, some were successful and some failed. Dr. John Kotter
determined that the change process involves series of phases that requires a considerable amount of time.
Thirty years of research by leadership expert Dr. John Kotter have proven that 70% of all major change
efforts in organizations fail. He found out the reason for the failure of the organization to adapt the change.
It is because the organizations often do not take the holistic approach required to see the change through.
Thus, Kotter identified eight stages of changes that for managing the change from which a company can be
successful and can achieve lasting sustainable change and business improvements. Hence, this model causes
change to become a campaign for the change management in the business companies. Apart from these 8
steps, Kotter also identified corresponding possible pitfalls for each stage that can spoil the entire change
project. The 8-steps for Kotter’s Change Model are as follows:
1. Establish a sense of urgency
2. Form a powerful guiding coalition
3. Create a vision
4. Communicate and share that vision
5. Empower others to act on the
vision
6. Plan for and create short-term wins
7. Consolidate improvements and
keep the momentum for change
moving
8. Institutionalizing new practices
Fig. Kotter’s 8 Steps Change Model
Make it stick
Don’t Let-up
Create short-term wins
Enable action
Communication for buy-in
Create Vision
Build guiding teams
Increase urgency
Implementing &
Sustaining the
change
Engaging &
enabling the
organization
Creating a climate
for change

5. 3
Kotter asserts that all of these stages must be worked through in order and to completion. Skipping even a
single step or getting too far ahead during the process of managing changing situation without a solid base
almost always creates problems in the business organization. According to Kotter, “Skipping even a single
step may lead to a huge disaster for a company”. Hence, in the table below, Dr. Kotter had given a relative
suggestion in according to the steps for the change management:
Table 1. John Kotter's 8 Change Step Processes
John Kotter's 8 Step Process
Steps Transformation Suggestions
1. Increase urgency  Examine market and competitive realities
 Identify and discuss crisis, potential crisis, or major opportunities
 Provide evidence from outside the organization that change is
necessary
2. Build the Guiding Team  Assemble a group with enough power to lead the change effort
 Attract key change leaders by showing enthusiasm and
commitment
 Encourage the group to work together as a team
3. Create Vision  Create a vision to help direct the change effort
 Develop strategies for achieving that vision
4. Communicate for Buy-in  Build alignment and engagement through stories
 Use every vehicle possible to communicate the new vision and
strategies
 Keep communication simple and heartfelt
 Teach new behaviors by the example of the guiding coalition
5. Empowering or enable
Action
 Remove obstacles to the change
 Change systems and / or structures that work against the vision
6. Create short term wins  Plan for and achieve visible performance improvements
 Recognize and reward those involved in bringing the
improvements to life
7. Do Not Let Up  Plan for and create visible performance improvements
 Recognize and reward personnel involved in the improvements
 Reinforce the behaviors shown that led to the improvements
8. Make Change Stick  Articulate the connections between the new behaviors and
corporate success
Source: http://www.change-management-blog.com/2009/07/change-model-3-john-kotters-8-steps-of.html

6. 4
Let us describe the eight steps involved in the Kotter’s 8 step change model briefly along with the possible
transformation suggestions and the strategies that could be adopted for the business success below:
Create a Sense of Urgency
The first step for the change process is to make a plan and take action in order to initiate for the required
changes. The proposal for the change process should be accepted by the employees and should agree to
step out of their comfort zones for the realization of change.
Mostly, the task of creating an alert situation seems to be quite difficult because it should be motivating, and
booming the circumstances of the organization with an ultimate situation of maximum participation. It is
mandatory to have 75% agreed support to start this progressive task with mutual understanding among the
employees.
Leaders who understand the importance of a sense of urgency are good at taking the pulse of their
company. It is important to determine the state of the organization in order to adapt the change procedure
for efficiency and effectiveness of the organization.
 Complacency –It is a state where people fail to react to signs that action must be taken
 False urgency -It is a state of doing unproductive actions leading towards unproductive results, and
eventually, burnout.
 True urgency –It is a state of believing in the benefits of the change.
After determining the state of the organization we can create a buzz for the change as per the expectation
and requirement of the change user and developer.
Strategies to create the alert are as follows:
 Explaining and Realizing the benefit of the change
 Creating and developing opportunities for the user
 Clear communication and information procedure
 Convincing the major supporting groups and motivating them.
 Value creating and inspiring proposal for the change.
Form a Powerful guiding Coalition
Change is one of the most difficult tasks which are needed to be governed by the special force of committee
who can handle it smoothly within the right time and with the expected values. There are different activities
such as developing vision, communicating with required stakeholder, eliminating the key obstacles,
generating short term wins, leading and managing dozens of change projects, and many more in an
organization. This activity is done with the equal participation of different experts who can manage it with
high productivity as per their professionalism.

7. 5
So, in order to get an effective outcome we should form a powerful coalition which must have the right
composition, a significant level of trust, and a shared objective.
It is essential that the team develop a level of trust in one another. This is the reason that makes the team
function well. Constructing the right team and then combining a level of trust with a shared goal in which the
team believes can result in a guiding coalition that has the capacity to make needed change.
Strategy in forming the Powerful Guiding coalition:
 The team as a whole should reflect enough Power so that those left out cannot block progress.
 All relevant viewpoints should be represented so that informed intelligent decisions can be made
with strong trust and commitment.
 The group should be seen and respected by those in the firm so that the group can enhance their
credibility.
 Recognize the opportunities and build the capacity of leading the change.
Create a Change Vision
A clearly stated vision gives an appropriate feel of understanding the reason for the entire change. It
simplifies hundreds or thousands of more detailed decisions. This is done to empower the employees and to
motivate them to take action in the right direction. Vision helps to coordinate the actions of different people
with increased efficiency and productivity.
Vision comprises of strategies, plans and budgets that are necessary to create a better future for all of the
enterprise’s stakeholders. To be effective, a vision must take into account the current realities of the
enterprise, but also set goals that are achievable. It is preferable to develop the precise goals with the
constraints of time and budget that can add the value for the organization.
Leader should be conscious that the developed vision is capable enough provide real guidance. It must be
focused, flexible and easy to communicate.
Strategy to develop the change vision:
 They convey a clear picture of what the future will look like and should be imaginable
 Stakeholders should show interest with high desirability
 The goal should be realistic and attainable for the vision
 It should be focused and proper enough for providing guidelines for decision making process.
 Vision should be flexible with the space of expansion as per requirement.
 They should be easy to communicate and can be explained quickly.

8. 6
Communicate and share the vision
Developing vision is not enough to success the change process in the organization. It is necessary to follow
the vision with enough communication among the required members. To be effective, the vision must be
communicated in hour-by-hour activities. The vision will be referred to in emails, in meetings, in
presentations – it will be communicated anywhere and everywhere.
Frequently discussed vision creates positive attitude and clear understanding to choose the correct direction
among the team members .Executives will use every effective communication channel possible to broadcast
the vision.
Strategy for effective communication of the vision:
 Communication should be done in simple and formal language which should be understandable and
usable.
 It should be vivid using verbal pictures which is more worthy than a thousand words – use metaphor,
analogy, and example.
 Ideas should be able to be spread by anyone to anyone because there are various parties to whom it
should be repeated again and again.
 Two-way communication is always more powerful than one-way communication
Enable Action
In this step, the senior leadership and the guiding coalition, means a guiding team, turns their attention in
the mitigation of the obstacles that do not support the change vision. The senior leadership and the guiding
coalition need an accurate understanding of the organizational barriers that hinders the implementation for
the change process in the organization. The members of the guiding coalition must understand the pre-
requisite required to implement the change. Thus, with the continuous communication between the other
stakeholders and the guiding coalition, the obstacle that hinders the change effort can be identified and
thus, mitigated. Hence, the organizational processes and structures, procedures and reward system need to
be aligned with the change vision as such Incentives have a profound effect on the capability to achieve the
change vision.
Empowering Action also involves the investment in the employee for their managerial training and
development. It is natural that human beings resist change. Employee and managers can actively or
passively resist change but resistance to change is not predictable. These training and other development
activities not only develop the skills and abilities of the employees required for the change, but it also
provide assistance that the change is the best interest of the employees and the managers. Consequently,
they can adjust the organizational training and other developmental activities and reward system of the
organization to align with the attitudes, skills, abilities and the behavior that are the crucial ingredients for
the change.

9. 7
Strategies for empowering change action are given below:
 Hire change leaders to deliver results on the vision
 Gain consistent feedback, recognize and reward people for the implementation of change.
 Determine the compatibility of the change vision with the organizational structure, performance and
other functionalities of the organization.
 Immediate action to remove obstacles that block the change.
Despite these efforts, however, there will be some people, who resist change, even at the managerial
level. These people must be informed to the senior managerial level. Then, the senior managerial level
tries to know the reasons for the resistance and if it is logical, the manager, senior managerial level and
the entire guiding coalition conducts a discussion and chooses the best alternative. Thus, the senior
managerial level involves all the people involved in the change process within the organization.
Create Short-term Wins
A short-term win can be defined as an effective organizational improvement that can be achieved within 6 to
18 months. A short-term win must meet following criteria:
 Its success must be unambiguous
 It should be visible throughout the organization
 It should be related with the change effort.
Generally, the short-term wins are necessary to prevent the loss of momentum and to keep the organization
engaged in the change activities. In the practical world, implementing a major change takes a huge period of
time. Realizing these changes is a challenge. Hence, the senior managerial level and the guiding coalition use
the short-term wins so as to discourage the organizational discouragement with the slow pace to implement
major change, means the short-term wins serves the employee and the managers to follow the vision and
the strategies of the organization.
Similarly, the short-term wins have the ability to gain the support from the organization that shows the
validity of the change vision. Finally, short-term wins have a way of building momentum that turns neutral
people into supporters, and unenthusiastic supporters into active helpers.
Strategies in order to create short-term wins are as follows:
 Implement only small changes whose result can be obtained quickly.
 Select cost effective targets that can be easily obtained.
 Analyze targets to avoid failure- use pros and cons to determine early target success.
 Recognize the people who help to meet the targets through the rewards.

10. 8
Do not Let up
Up to this stage, the organization develops many processes, internal connections and other several inter-
departmental procedures or inter-dependencies as John Kotter states in his book. With the running time,
however, some dependencies are no longer necessary. It requires patience to the stakeholders to know that
the time for such inter-dependencies has passed. Moreover, it also requires involvement of senior
leadership. The senior leadership must keep the urgency level high to effect the change using the
organizational power and the lower level managers must work with the guiding coalition to identify and
remove the unnecessary dependencies and bring the change project to the position as it is expected.
The following quotes from Dr. John Kotter’s book, “Leading Change”, discuss the forms of the continuing
resistances for the important change efforts:
“Irrational and political resistance to change never fully dissipates. Even if you’re successful in the
early stages of a transformation, you often don’t win over the self centered manager who is
appalled when reorganization encroaches on his turf, or the narrowly focused engineer who can’t
fathom why you want to spend so much time worrying about customers, or the stone-hearted
finance executive who thinks empowering employees is ridiculous.”
This quote reflects that in reality it is really difficult for the organizational change. The resistance for the
change may go underground because of the continuous involvement of the senior leadership, but normally it
never disappears completely. Nevertheless, the senior leadership should promote and develop the existing
employees and hire other employees whenever required. The changes process moves forward as it gets the
opportunity. That is why, the short-wins achieved and implementing more changes are the powerful strategy
to encounter these Irrational and political resistance.
According to the John Kotter, following are the outcomes by this step in a successful major change initiative:
 More projects being added
 Additional people being brought in to help with the changes
 Senior leadership focused on giving clarity to an aligned vision and shared purpose
 Employees empowered at all levels to lead projects
 Reduced interdependencies between areas
 Constant effort to keep urgency high
 Consistent show of proof that the new way is working
Strategies to build the change in the organization are as follows:
 After successful implementation of the change in the organization, analyze what worked and what
did not.
 Develop new goals to maintain and continue the change growth in the organization.

11. 9
Make It Stick
The 8th
step outlined by the Dr. Kotter is a critical activity to make sure that the new changes that the
organization has achieved are still continuing. This step anchors the change in the entire organizational
culture. The senior leadership must anchor the change by analyzing the superiority of the new changes and
their benefits to the organization. Senior leadership must work with the guiding coalition and other manager
on the following:
 Identifying the norms and values that support the changes.
 Ensuring selection, promotion and succession processes according to the new norms and values
of the organization.
 Modify the reward system aligned with the new norms and values of organization.
 Provide trainings and development activities to fulfill the skills and competencies associated with
the changes.
 Modify and eliminate organizational processes and procedure that does not support the
changes.
Strategies to stick the changes to the organizational daily processes and activities are as follows:
 Conduct a discussion program with the employees about the progress timely.
 Explain the importance of change ideals and values when hiring the people and conducting the
trainings.
 Develop new policies and processes that reinforce the value of change.
Benefits of Kotter’s model
According to the Kotter’s Change Model, companies have to convince the employees to tackle with the
changes in order to survive in the market. Various team building methods must be conducted and all the
processes that undergoes, must be aligned with the proper communication modes between the entities of
the organization. Furthermore, the change vision must be developed and shared with the employees of the
organization. Similarly, the skill developing techniques must be conducted to ensure that the employees are
able to deal with the change activities. An entire change process must be divided into smaller parts to
maintain the dedication of the employees to that change. Finally, these changes must be made permanent
by fitting the change activities into the company’s culture and practices.
Following are the benefits of the Kotter’s 8 step change model:
 It is a step by step model, which is easy to follow.
 It does not focus on the change itself, but rather the acceptance and preparedness for the change,
which makes the changes easier for the transition in the organizational culture.

12. 10
 It acts as an Organizational development tool by providing three-dimensional linkage between
individual employee, team and the organization
 It provides a platform to reveal the importance of the stakeholder, leadership, employees in the
organizational level.
 Kotter’s model helps to deal with cultural changes, thus helping large and small organization to
perform well in new environment. (Step 8)
Thus, Kotter’s 8 step change model helps organization to be prepared for the changing situations. According
to this model, people are the major asset for any business organization because it describes the importance
of the stakeholders, leadership and employees for the organization. Moreover, Kotter’s model develops the
changing situations into a success by acting as a three-dimensional linkage tool for organizational
development.
Limitations of Kotter’s model
Kotter’s 8 step model was fully elaborated to address “fundamental changes in how the business is
conducted in order to cope with a new and challenging market environment”. This statement implicitly
states a framework in which the model is applicable; therefore, it is not expected to be applicable to all types
of change. Following are the conditions where the model might fail without the modifications:
 A rigid approach
Kotter argues that the steps in the model should be followed in sequence. If any of the steps is missed, the
implementation of the change is not worth and if the process has started, it is difficult to change the
direction of the project. But, in real life, the steps may be combined or somehow reviewed for the fluent
change management.
 Some steps are not relevant in some contexts
The linearity of the model can lead to the wrong assumptions. There might be some transformations in the
organization that does not require nor are able to go through certain steps. For example, if there is a change
with need for a great deal of secrecy. Steps 1 and 4 will be completely discarded.
 Dealing with difficulties during the change management
Organization may undergo through several difficulties while implementing change. The planning of changes
according to the Kotter’s Model should limit the obstacles. The model is not detailed enough to provide
information in all scenarios. For example, Resistance to change and commitment to change are major
aspects of change management and complementary components outside Kotter’s model.

13. 11
Application of Kotter’s model
John P. Kotter is internationally celebrated researcher and has authored eighteen books, whereby twelve of
them are bestsellers. His theory about the change management as a model was accepted in different
organization in an easy way because of the clear distinction of different steps.
Along with clear steps, Kotter’s model has managed to distinguish between the role of manager and leader
and their related function to adopt change in their organization. In his theory, he divided the functions into
groups for managers and leaders respectively in the context of an organization.
It is necessary for the project managers to get an understanding of which factors are most relevant to
develop for creating a successful project. There is large number of researches made in the field of managers
and leaders in organizations and what functions are important to create a successful and profitable
organization. Projects comprises of various function like motivating, budgeting, planning and so on. These
functions are important qualities to be a successful leader of the project organization.
There are some basic ideas suggested by Kotter to differentiate between managers and leaders with their
respective functions for the change procedure are as follows:
Managers
 Set objectives (communicating these to people within the organization)
 Organize (staffing, divide tasks and activities among the subordinates)
 Motivate (give incentives and reward by using the promotion policy of the organization)
 Make measurements (measure both individuals and the organization)
 Develop people (encourage and educate)
Leaders
 Motivating and inspiring: The leader is always promising to motivate their employees to generate
the effective result with high productivity. Recognition and rewards always encourage employees
and gives a transparent result to the organization. Leader should manage to keep moving their co-
workers towards success.
 Aligning people: The leader communicates the direction to those who is needed to alignment, so
they understand the vision and later on wants to achieve the vision.
 Establish a direction: The leader establishes vision, mission and strategies in order to show the track
to his co-workers to achieve their desired objectives within the required time-frame.

14. 12
Conclusion
The John Kotter's teachings are now accepted by many organizations: the CEO must lead the change; the
entire organization must be involved; and the organizational culture must be taken into account before any
major change. On the basis of these teachings, he has developed 8 step change model, which is presented in
action points arranged in a practical sequence. The model is sensitive and relatively easy to accept since it is
based upon the practical experiences of John Kotter and so, is well presented with the appropriate
examples.
According to Kotter, successful change leaders find a problem or a solution to a problem and then engage
the people and compel them to change the behavior according to situation. They recommend a people-
driven approach that helps people to see the reason for change.
Furthermore, Kotter has deeply analyzed the functions of the managers and leaders in an organization that
acts as a guide in today’s business to achieve the business success. In today’s changing world, every
organization needs to enhance strategies to meet the globally changing demands. The organizations have
trained their managers in change process models to offer effective assistance in providing information to
design synchronized development intercession for leadership, employees and organization stakeholders.
Hence, the above mentioned 8-Steps processes outlined by Dr. Kotter shows that the organizations can
avoid failure and adapt to the change from the employees. Changes will not be successful it the employees
are reluctant to the change. Thus, by arising the willingness for the change and improving their ability to
change, organizations can increase their chances of success, both today and in the coming future. Without
this ability to adapt the continuous change, organizations cannot boom or succeed.

15. 13
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