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OCTOBER 2009
Hi folks; In this issue of the CCG Newsletter, we explore John Kotter’s work with a specific focus on his most recent book Sense of Urgency (2008). In the last issue we reviewed how organizations can fall into a death spiral and some recover while others do not based on the compelling research of Jim Collins. I decided to insert John Kotter’s work on urgency as it applies to what is happening in many organizations. On an individual level, understanding urgency seems to be a developmental stage wherein managers will fall prey to complacency or create false urgency, whereas leaders will understand the underlying sense of urgency required for successful change. Organizationally, the sense of urgency is indicative of the organizations that are surviving and/or thriving within the present economic situation of rapid and relentless change. Similar to Collins’ body of work, Kotter’s career and numerous publications have been researched based, providing insights into actual organizational dynamics. In the preface of the book, Kotter notes some astounding findings concerning large scale change within organizations. He determined “that in over 70 percent of the situations where substantial changes were clearly needed, either they were not fully launched, or the change efforts failed, or changes were achieved but over budget, late, and with great frustration.” However, in 10 percent of the cases, there was a distinct difference in how people approach the work which resulted in consistently achieving more than thought possible. This latter group led to the writing of a Sense of Urgency. To set up the discussion on the Sense of Urgency, a brief review of some key concepts from Kotter’s prior work will be developed. First, we will review some of the concepts from the 1990 book, A Force for Change: How Leadership Differs from Management. This difference is critical to executive success, especially in terms of developing the razor sharp capacity to drill down on details when necessary and always moving back to the large picture to lead. As executive coaches and consultants, these differences are common to supporting executives in their development and success. Next, we will do a succinct review of the Eight Steps to Transforming your Organization from the 1996 book Leading Change. The capacity of executives to lead change is a core competency. Hence, as an executive or an executive coach/consultant, understanding the interface between leadership and organization change is a critical capacity. Finally, in the next issue of CCG Newsletter, we examine how Kotter’s (with Dan Cohen) 2002 book The Heart of Change begins to integrate the leadership and change concepts within the frame of A Sense of Urgency to begin to see how managers will tend to fall into complacency or false urgency whereas solid executive leadership creates and sustains a sense of urgency commensurate with the organization, its market, and the competition. Thanks for reading the CCG Newsletter. If you found the newsletter useful, please forward it to someone that might benefit from it. If not, thanks for reading it and kindly click on the Unsubscribe link below if it does not meet your needs. Respectfully, Herb StevensonPresident/CEO P.S. In coming issues, we will look at research on the stages of leadership development including the work of Jane Loevinger, Robert Kegan, Susanne Cooke-Greuter, and Bill Torbert. Leadership and Change: Some Writings of John KotterIn 1990, John Kotter wrote, A Force for Change: How Leadership Differs from Management. In it he noted that “good management brought a degree of order and consistency to key dimensions like the quality and profitability of products. “Leadership... [however] ...does not produce consistency and order...; it produces movement.” (p. 4). These distinguishing features are the crux of every executive position and the work of OD consultants and executive coaches. Generally, the higher the individual moves up the organization, the greater the focus on leadership and the less on management. Management ProcessesKotter elaborates by noting the narrow and short term focus of management processes. He indicates that management processes tend to involve three functions:
Leadership Processes for Constructive ChangeJuxtaposed to management, leadership leans towards a larger and broader perspective with a longer term that seeks to produce movement within the organization. Leadership seems, in Kotter’s terms, “to boil down to establishing where a group of people should go, getting them lined up in that direction and committed to movement, and then energizing them to overcome the inevitable obstacles they will encounter along the way.” (p. 5) He expands the concept to invoke a critical aspect of what is considered “good” or “effective” leadership, which often seems to get lost in the actual practice within organizations. Kotter notes that “we usually label leadership “good” or “effective” when it moves people to a place in which both they and those who depend upon them are genuinely better off, and when it does so without trampling on the rights of others. The function implicit in this belief is constructive or adaptive change.” (p. 5) Kotter draws a distinction between managing and leading . In his view, “leadership within a complex organization achieves...[constructive or adaptive change]...through three subprocesses..:
Leading Change: A MetaphorIn more recent times we have realized that executive effectiveness is a blend of managing and leading. In basic terms, it is more like having a perspective and capacity to function like a camera with a wide angle, zoom lens. In most day-to-day situations, the executive constantly shifts perspectives from wide angle, to narrow focus, from pinhead to 10,000 foot view. These constantly shifting perspectives are the interface between the executive’s capacity to examine the day-to-day data and “goings-on” within the organization and the multiple views to gain awareness of when to crawl in the weeds and when to admire the skyline view, all in the quest to keep the organization moving in the desired direction. Eight Steps to Transforming Your OrganizationIn 1996, Kotter published his continuing research findings on Leading Change1[1]. Drawing on his findings from A Force for Change, Kotter seems to have focused on effective leadership and constructive (or adaptive) change to determine what motivates people to want to move to another place of being (and doing) in an organization, a place where everyone will be better off without “trampling on others along the way”. With this in mind, Kotter discovered that “good” or “effective” leadership and therefore successful transformational change involves a developmental interface between leadership and the organization that moves through the following eight steps:
As a road map, the eight steps seem a bit elusive as they describe what to do and not necessarily how to be as a leader even though Kotter moves back and forth between Leading change and transformational change as a process. In the next issue, we will pull from the Heart of Change and A Sense of Urgency to clarify how transformational change matches up with leadership development. [1]1 The 8 Steps of Transforming Change was first published in Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail, Harvard Business Review, March-April, 1995, 59-67. Upcoming Programs & WorkshopsIntroduction to Organization Development (OD) WorkshopNovember 16-18, 2009 Completing this Introductory workshop is a prerequisite for attending the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland's two Executive & Organization Development Programs, Becoming An Effective Organizational Intervener (BEI) and Conflict, Confrontation & Negotiation (CCN). This three-day workshop provides an opportunity to experience the "gestalt" approach through learning basic concepts and applying them through structured exercises. Unique to our approach is that each workshop is a balance of direct teaching and immediate application. Learn more... Becoming An Effective Organizational Intervener Program(Formerly called BEI)Five Sessions: Becoming an Effective Organizational Intervener is a dynamic multi-session program for people involved in leadership within organizations whether it be via day-to-day management or organizational change and development. In five exciting sessions, participants will explore our overall model and theory base as applied to individual, group, and organizational levels of system. The program offers participants a powerful and integrative opportunity to increase their awareness, knowledge, and skills in order to become more effective interveners in organizations. Learn more... Read more articles and see current workshops and retreats on the Cleveland Consulting Group website |