...The book I chose to read for my book review was A Sense of Urgency by John P. Kotter. Kotter is an author of eighteen books and a well-regarded professor, manager and leader. Kotter’s purpose in writing this piece is to determine why organizations fail to operate with a “sense of urgency”, and how they can begin to do so. I think the premise of the book comes from Kotter’s passion for writing, mastering leadership and sharing that knowledge with others. “This is a book about a seemingly narrow issue – creating a high enough sense of urgency among a large enough group of people – but an issue I have come to believe is a of overriding importance in a fast-moving, turbulent era”(Kotter, 2008, p. vii). The first area Kotter addresses is complacency. Complacency is being content, Kotter than suggests that this can be battled by having a true sense of urgency to succeed and win. To do so you need to utilize your passion and follow your heart’s desire to push beyond barriers and thrive from your successes. Kotter writes about tactics that aim at the heart that will get you to succeed. Leaders that successfully master urgency employ behaviors that create experiences, are constantly modeling urgency, finding possibilities in crisis and confronting and handling those who will try to stop you from succeeding. Chapters four through seven list tactics that help employees to become a part of the future by making it meaningful, and appealing to everyone involved. The first tactic is to...
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...Dr. John Kotter is one of today's most sought after speakers on leading change. Go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yfrj2Y9IlI and watch the video. In one of his books, he noted two prerequisites for change: a solution and a sense of urgency. What is his point in the video. Why is a sense of urgency so important? Have you ever seen change fail because there was not a sense of urgency? (300 words minimum) Dr. John Kotter is a guru of leadership. In his book Leading change he outlined eight important stages which are important for bringing change in any organization. Sense of urgency is one of the most important stages/step. According to Kotter, sense of urgency means to push or fight against those employees who are complacent. It is very important in the process of change as it gives a little push and put pressure on the employees. Complacency is detrimental for change. Complacency is a mindset which is found in almost every organization. It basically refers to those employees who are not willing to change or adapt new things as they believe that they have always done things like this and will continue to do that the same way. They are not very flexible. This attitude can only be changed if you instill sense of urgency in your employees. Change is inevitable. If you want to be successful then you have to bring changes in your organization. Changes can be simple like buying new computers or complication like bringing strategical changes. You cannot avoid changes but...
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...A Sense of Urgency Jay Mullens EDL 640 – The Executive Educator Western Illinois University A Sense of Urgency In Kotter’s book, A Sense of Urgency, Kotter argued how effective leaders must impart a sense of urgency in order for their institute to continue to develop in a positive manner. When this attitude is infused throughout the complete association, the opportunity for contentment and false urgency is lessened. Kotter states on page 1 in the opening paragraph, “A sense of urgency is important, of course, complacency is a disaster these days. But complacency is a relative minor issue for us. Better execution of our innovation initiative is our challenge.” If employees can grasp this concept of better execution and realize Kotter’s philosophy, urgency will become the product. The four basic traits that Kotter believes will escalate urgency in an organization are as follows: * Tactic #1 – Bring outside in: A leader cannot rely on insiders alone. On page 63, Kotter explains, “The disconnect between what insiders see, feel, and think, on one the hand, and external opportunities and hazards, on the other, can be astonishing at times – even in organizations that are producing very good short term results.” He states the internal stakeholder must comprehend what is occurring outside of the workplace. It is essential that the leaders of the institute provide information, personally meet with employees at all levels, and be transparent with all files. * Tactic...
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...advancements in technology, companies are forced to make changes if they want to stay in business. Unfortunately, most change efforts fail due to resistance and lack of support. Most people are afraid of change, and managers have to be very skilled in getting the employees to commit to implementing the changes. Successful change efforts are based on individuals at the organization responding positively to the transformation. So what can an organization do to bring about successful change? Research suggests that change is more effective when it’s driven from within by the upper management team of the organization. Employees are more than likely to buy into the effort if they feel it’s being supported by the top brass. If the employees get a sense that upper management is not championing the cause, then they will not support it. In addition, the change effort must also tie in with the culture of the organization. Management must find a way to connect it with the values, beliefs and behaviors of the organization. Otherwise, the effort will fail. Successfully changing an organization is not an easy task for any company. However, a theory has been proposed that states there are steps a company can take to achieve their goal of organizational change. In The Heart of Change, John...
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...startup, downsizing, recession, or leadership change, a business or entity will experience the concept of change. Several companies have problems with the agents of change; John P. Kotter has developed a process of eight stages that initiate change in order to guide organizations through the change process. I will attempt to discuss the stages and show a correlation to topics discussed in organizational behavior and whether or not the topics support or contradict the processes. Stage 1 is Increase Urgency. Every organization has experienced some level of success, but with each success earned, there has also been failure. When formulating a company’s own process for success, becoming stagnant in an ever-changing climate becomes an issue. There's no pressing factor or pressures to get employees or their leaders excited about upcoming changes. Kotter proposed that in order to start implementing change, there must be a sense of urgency available. Establishing a sense of urgency is crucial to gaining much needed cooperation between employees and their leaders (Kotter, p. 36). While establishing a sense of urgency, Kotter noted that complacency is a key factor in determining how well it will be received (Kotter, p. 36). We learn that in order to decrease the sources of complacency, John Kotter suggested creating an atmosphere of crisis to allow a financial loss, eliminate...
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...Organizational Approaches to Change The ability to change and adapt is extremely important for any organization to reach its full potential. Influencing people to change is more dependent on showing them a truth that influences their feelings, rather than shifting their thinking (Kotter & Cohen, 2002, p. 1). If leaders can change the behavior of members of an organization, the successful large-scale change they are seeking will more likely be realized. According to Kotter and Cohen, in order to achieve successful large-stage change, there are first eight stages that must be followed. These steps are: increasing urgency, building the guiding team, getting the vision right, communicate for buy-in, empower action, create short-term wins, don't let up, and making change stick (Kotter & Cohen, 2002, p. 6). While organizational change does not necessary require each of these steps to occur, or in the exact specified order, they provide a basic pattern for leaders to use to influence behavior and create change (Kotter & Cohen, 2002, p.7). An alternative to the eight steps suggested by Kotter and Cohen is the Model of Organizational Change and Development. This model operates in this way: forces for change affect performance outcomes, which are the focus of diagnosis of the problem, which leads to the selection of appropriate methods, as constrained by impediments and limiting conditions, followed by implementation of the method, which is the provision for program evaluation...
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...Book Review “Leading Change” by John Kotter 1996 Review by Chris Shea John P. Kotter is internationally known and widely regarded as the foremost speaker on the topics of leadership and change. He is the premier voice on how the best organizations actually achieve successful transformations. The Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus at the Harvard Business School and a graduate of MIT and Harvard, Kotter’s vast experience and knowledge on successful change and leadership have been proven time and time again. The book Leading Change looks at an eight stage process for implementing successful transformations in today’s firms as well as the eight errors that are common to change efforts. The ideas and methods in this book should be considered a roadmap to successful change for any manager or leader in today’s modern organizations. Leading Change is broken up into three parts. Part one begins by discussing the potential downside of change and the eight errors commonly made during transformation efforts and their consequences. He then goes into detail on the economic and social forces that drive the need for major change in today’s organizations. This is also where Kotter introduces his eight step process for creating change. In Part two Kotter goes into great detail about his eight step process for successful change highlighting what to focus on and avoid at each step of the process. Part three looks at the implications for the 21st century, he goes into detail...
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...Abstract Leading Change by John P. Kotter and Organizational Behavior and Management by Ivancevich are centered around the themes and concepts of an eight stage process that incorporates the ideas of establishing a sense of urgency, creating the guiding coalition, developing a vision and strategy, communicating the change vision, empowering employees for broad-based action, generating short-term wins, consolidating gains and producing more change, and anchoring new approaches of each author. Leading Change and the related text are findings that complement the explorations of each author. One may find the relationship between the books to be astounding as the authors appear to mirror each other’s ideas, but one author provides insight through the use of experience and opinions, while the other uses research and supporting evidence. An effective manager should be able to integrate the concepts of organizational behavior and leadership in order to properly communicate, implement, and transform the projects of an organization whose goal is to become more competitive. The text on Organizational Behavior has provided the research and theories on the effective use of human resources, while Kotter offers a situational approach that one can easily relate to. The integration of Kotter’s eight stage process along with the text by Ivancevich have provided me with a better understanding of leadership as an ongoing fundamental process and organizational behavior as a principle that...
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...Integrative Paper Kotter and Cohen’s The Heart of Change Ivancevich, Konopaske and Matteson’s Organizational Behavior and Management Introduction Kotter and Cohen’s The Heart of Change is written with the premise that “people change what they do less because they are given analysis that shifts their thinking than because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings” (Kotter and Cohen, p. 1). This is an extremely powerful message and important for organizations to understand if they are going to be successful at implementing a large-scale organizational change. The Heart of Change describes how companies can effectively transform their organization to better succeed in the constantly changing, turbulent society we live in today. Kotter and Cohen’s strategy for successful reorganization is described in an eight-step process. Ivancevich, Konopaske and Matteson’s Organizational Behavior and Management, builds on the ideas presented in The Heart of Change by giving a more in-depth explanation of organizational behaviors, processes and changes. Both of these readings offer a better understanding of how shifting the behaviors and emotions of an organization’s employees is essential in succeeding at organizational change. Discussion Step one of Kotter and Cohen’s The Heart of Change is the most significant of all eight steps. Step one involves the need to create a sense of urgency throughout the workforce to begin the process of organizational change...
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...“The world is complex and turbulence is growing” (Kotter and Cohen, 2002). We live in a very fast paced world. Things are changing rapidly. Ironic as it sounds, change is one of the very few consistencies in the world. But yet we look at change as a brief disruption in life. It is this view of change that causes stress in people. Change at work can be a major contributor of stress. Whether it is downsizing or changes in leadership, change within an organization takes place all the time. Changes within an organization usually occurs when a company wants to improve the performance of the organization. Change is inevitable in today’s business community in order to meet the needs and demands of an ever changing marketplace. Globalization, rapid advances in technology, and a declining economy are some of the challenges organizations face today. If an organization wants to stay in business and increase profits, it needs to adapt and change very quickly. Moreover, having the right people within an organization to effect change is critical. Most change efforts are unsuccessful due to resistance and lack of support. Most people are afraid of change, and managers have to be very skilled in getting the employees to commit to implementing the changes. In the book, The Heart of Change, Kotter and Cohen illustrate a step by step a process to implement effective change in the workplace. The process comprises of eight steps an organization can use to effectively accomplish change and achieve...
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...exemplifying appropriate management practices to distribute a successful organization. In order to become effective and sufficient, the organization must be centered on or around human resources, management, organizational culture, and implemented processes. In the readings of Leading Change, Kotter displays a different interpretation from the textbook regarding a strong emphasis for leadership to assist in successful transformations of organizations. Kotter explains that failure to transform an existing or upcoming organization results from too much complacency, failure to create a sufficiently powerful guiding coalition, underestimating the power of vision, under communicating the vision, obstacles blocking the vision, failure to create short term wins, declaring victory too soon, and neglecting to anchor changes firmly (1-14). Establishment of a Sense of Urgency The establishment of a sense of urgency is crucial to gaining needed cooperation. With high complacency and low urgency, the organization struggles to generate interest to address the problems and ability to convince key individuals to create and communicate the change vision (Kotter 36). In order to initiate a secure level of urgency within the organization, methods to reduce or eliminate complacency is necessary. Attention must directed to address allowed crises, broader decision making , more long term goals instead of low functional goals, and initiation of growth. Ivancevich, Konopske, and Matteson believe that...
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...This seems a bleak appraisal for any organization, but especially for a church. Yet the equally important learning is that change efforts are still important to face.... and the sooner the better. John Kotter (who teaches Leadership at Harvard Business School) has made it his business to study both success and failure in change initiatives in business. "The most general lesson to be learned from the more successful cases is that the change process goes through a series of phases that, in total, usually require a considerable length of time. Skipping steps creates only the illusion of speed and never produces satisfactory results" and "making critical mistakes in any of the phases can have a devastating impact, slowing momentum and negating hard-won gains". Kotter summarizes the eight phases as follows. 1] Establish a Sense of Urgency Talk of change typically begins with some people noticing vulnerability in the organization. The threat of losing ground in some way sparks these people into action, and they in turn try to communicate that sense of urgency to others. In congregations it is typically membership loss, financial struggles or turnover in key volunteers and leaders. Kotter notes that over half the companies he has observed have never been able to create enough urgency to prompt action. "Without motivation, people won’t help and the effort goes nowhere…. Executives underestimate how hard it can be to drive people out of their comfort...
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...Momplaisir Integrative Paper Kotter Meets Ivancevich Change is usually one of the most difficult phenomenons to accept. Although we are living in an ever-changing world, people are likely to resist change if what they are currently doing is seemingly working. Kotter’s eight-step model provides a design for successfully implementing change within an organization. According to The Heart of Change, the main problem that people faced when leading change was changing the behavior of people and in order to successfully lead a change movement one must be able to speak to people’s feelings. According to Ivancevich, there are several forces for change. Organizations are not likely to even think about making changes if there is not a shocking event to lead to the need for change. For example, plummeting sales would lead a company to evaluate where they are going wrong. Technology, which in itself is forever evolving, is another change stimulant. With the evolution of technology jobs roles are changing and some are no longer needed. As such, people are forced to adapt to technology in an effort to stay viable. In addition to necessity and technology, social and political change also contributes to change. This outside factor is something outside of the control of the organization, but will ultimately affect the company’s future. An example of this may be a recession. The first step according to Kotter’s model was to increase urgency. The presence of urgency leads to being able to sustain...
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...Konopaske & Matteson, 2010). In reality, not all organizations will successfully make appropriate changes or adopt the correct procedures to make the change last. There is no doubt that change can cause anxiety within the ranks. According to Kotter and Cohen, authors of “The Heart of Change”, people change what they do less because they are given analysis that shifts their thinking. In most cases, they change because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings (Kotter & Cohen, 2002). When change is implemented effectively, it is not only a win for the organization but for the employees as well. Kotter and Cohen explained that change involves an eight-step process. Those eight steps are increasing urgency, building the guiding team, getting the vision right, communicating for buy-in, empowering action, creating short-term wins, do not let up and making change stick. Discussion Urgency is defined as pressing importance or requiring speedy action (Merriam-Webster.com). According to Kotter and Cohen, the first stage of large-scale transformation should be to create a sense of urgency that the change is necessary. Urgency helps motivate personnel to overcome complacency, fear, anger, or pessimism, which may result in resistance (Kotter & Cohen, 2002). Individuals resist change because they fear what will happen to them. The reasons for resistance could include the threat of loss of position, power, economic insecurity and feelings of inadequacy. Resistance can pose...
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...Change Analysis: The Impact of a Management Change in the Workplace Abstract This paper discusses the changes of the tennis club I work at after new ownership and new management come in and swiftly begin to make changes. It is the process in which the changes were made that is discussed throughout the paper in regards to John Kotter’s 8-step change model discussed in his book The Heart of Change: Real-life stories of How People Change Their Organizations. It is the steps that were taken to introduce change to existing staff and the team that was put together by the new manager to implement those changes. Change Analysis: The Impact of a Management Change in the Workplace Introduction Change is never easy and it is especially difficult when the change is the management of an organization. When a change in management occurs, it is often followed by the management making changes to the jobs we do and the work that is done. This kind of major change needs to be effectively completed in order for it to be successful. There needs to be high competencies in management and leadership so that all of the challenges can be met today and tomorrow (Trotter, 2013). I work part-time for the private tennis club my family belongs to. About five years ago, the club was purchased and the new owners wanted to take it in a new direction. The club had been ran exactly the same way for almost 40 years and it was not to the benefit of the owners. The new owners came in with one big idea...
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