Rounding out our series on Dr. Kotter's 8 Accelerators, we come to our final blog post in War Stories with Kotter.
The previous articles in this series are here for ease of reference:
War Stories with Kotter, Part 1: Institute Change
War Stories with Kotter, Part 2: Enlist a Volunteer Army
War Stories with Kotter, Part 3: Build a Guiding Coalition
War Stories with Kotter, Part 4: Form a Strategic Vision
War Stories with Kotter, Part 5: Create a Sense of Urgency
War Stories with Kotter, Part 6: Generate Short Term Wins
War Stories with Kotter, Part 7: Enable Action by Removing Barriers
While researching this series, I found an article by Pollack J and Pollack R from UTS in 2014 that pointed out that Kotter's 8 Step process was highly used and recognised, but that it hadn't often been independently tested. In other words that Kotter's model was mostly validated by Kotter. It's therefore interesting that in this blog series, we've added to the discussion and provided a link between change management theory and practice.
The Pollack paper described a change team managing the introduction of a knowledge management system by using Kotter's 8 Step Process (as it was then). The team found:
That the model could not be applied in a linear step-by-step approach, but that multiple concurrent steps might be required simultaneously.
That although the model is popular, there are few case studies that show how Kotter's model was used at the time of implementing the change, to guide the change management process or activities. Or for those case studies that did, not enough reflection was shared to critique the use of Kotter's process.
That Kotter's process was effective, but that some customisation was appropriate to ensure it met the needs of the organisation.
That it is recommended that the model is used for top-level change, but also at all other levels of stakeholders: and that these might all be working through different stages at different speeds.
It's in the nature of change environments that you can't know what would have happened if a certain model or approach had not been used. However in this series, we've observed both Kotter's own advice - and the suggestion of experience - in the need for an iterative approach.
A key learning across change management generally seems to be that steps or tools used in a change management process may need to be revisited or worked out of sequence in order to get the results needed. This is because different stakeholders and impacted groups move through change processes differently, and at different speeds. With some groups more effort might be needed to create a sense of urgency, and with others more effort might be needed elsewhere, such as in removing barriers to action.
That being said, it seems fairly straightforward that when it comes to sustaining change, it's possible to use the success of the gains already achieved to produce more interest in change, and to anchor the need for change processes into the organisation's culture.
Today's War Story is about embedding change by sustaining acceleration.
From the website https://www.kotterinc.com/methodology.
Kotter's Sustain Acceleration emphasises the importance of maintaining momentum after initial success to ensure lasting change. This essentially means continuing to build on what was achieved in the change program and to avoid falling back into old habits. This includes the key aspects of using the credibility gained from early wins to build upon and drive further change; to focus on a continuous improvement model in which leaders keep pushing for more improvements until the vision is fully realised; and avoiding complacency after initial successes.
This step speaks to both embedding the changes achieved this time around, as well as making the change culture itself sustainable longer term. With the multiplied change agendas we see occurring in numerous organisations, this step may be a challenge for many. Even while a change initiative is delivering, many organisations have already switched attention to the next new project.
The Group IT department of a large government agency held the responsibility for delivering and enabling the organisation's technology vision. This constituted a large number of project, change and IT professionals who worked together on rotating mixed teams to deliver technology and change projects. Each assignment would be prioritised, scoped and resourced using in-house teams, contractors, vendors and subject matter experts from sponsoring business areas.
Over several years, teams worked together on projects in various configurations, team members becoming familiar with each other's abilities and strengths. When projects were completed successfully, there was always a post-implementation-review to capture learnings that were later shared with the entire group, and a celebratory lunch.
Because of the style of working, the mixture of skills, and the way in which teams were put together and engaged in different combinations, the themes of well-managed change and continuous improvement permeated throughout the department. One aspect that was evident was that each successfully delivered project created excitement and interest in the next change initiative. It established a sense of confidence within business partnerships that contributed to an increasing momentum between each successive initiative.
Conclusion on Kotter's Step: Sustain Acceleration
Through multi-disciplinary teamwork in which each team member carried an imprint of past success, this government agency's technology vision was being delivered in increments that gained increasing momentum. So much so that the Group IT function had to deal with the consequences of these repeated, successful deliveries.
The group was starting to be seen as one that could tackle intangible ideas and bring them to life with technology and expertise. This created the need to investigate project prioritisation and other gate-keeping methods. The culture of reliable delivery continues in this group many years after it's initial formation.
To find out what acceleration can be achieved in your change program, arrange a free introduction to Agencia Change.
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