The eight most common errors when attempting corporate change are:

1. Not Establishing Enough Sense of Urgency
2. Not Creating a Powerful Guiding Coalition
3. Lacking a Vision
4. Under communicating the Vision by a Factor of Ten
5. Not removing Obstacles to the Vision
6. Not Systematically Planning and Creating Short-Term Wins
7. Declaring Victory too Soon
8. Not Anchoring Changes in the Corporation’s Culture

At the end of the chapter, Kotter restates the list of eight, shifting the negative errors to positive steps an organization can take to avoid common pitfalls.

1. Establish a Sense of Urgency
2. Create a Powerful Coalition
3. Create a Clear Vision Etc….

Kotter also stressed that each of these steps/phases must be followed in order. Skipping a step could bring about the demise of a company!

The writing style of the reading seems to model the first phase. Kotter brings a sense of urgency to the importance of these phases by offering proof of failed company transformations at each level. He attempts to engage his audience emotionally by first describing dramatic company failures (errors). As I read this, I imagined my own workplace and current efforts to instigate change. I found myself reflecting: Would my company avoid these traps? If I sense my company is weak in following one of these steps, do I sound the alarm? Who would listen? What if I was wrong? (After all, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.) Would I have been as emotionally inspired to ‘reflect’ on these points had Kotter started the Chapter by presenting the eight steps as phases to follow rather than pitfalls to avoid? I’m not sure. However, I think this written approach of ‘urgency’ was intentional on Kotter’s part.

These phases are not necessarily ground-breaking or innovative, but it’s useful to have this important information extracted down to a neat list. The Innovation Studies majors will recognize that Kotter’s steps compliment the four steps found in Everett Roger’s, The Diffusion of Innovation. Kotter takes Roger’s concepts and places them in the context of a corporate setting. The basic premise is the same: to increase the possibilities of successfully implementing change or diffusing an innovation (idea or product).

Roger’s four main elements are: 1. Innovation – an idea, practices, or objects that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption. 2. Communication Channels – the mean by which messages get from one individual to another. 3. Time a. The innovation-decision process b. The relative time with which an innovation is adopted by an individual or group. c. The innovation’s rate of adoption. 4. Social System – a set of interrelated units that are engaged in joint problem solving to accomplish a common goal.

This past weekend, I attended a Strategic Planning Retreat for my company (McNally Smith College of Music), this ws the first retreat our school has had, we are under the leadership of a new school President who took office this past Fall. The retreat goal was to shake out core information for a new mission and vision statement. The school has employed a professional writer so, our weekend responsibility was to distill the core elements we want reflected in the statements.

I found myself observing the process of leadership and efforts to implement change from both perspectives of Rogers and Kotter. The new President is blending systemic leadership (Allen/Cherrey) with his hierarchal authority to implement change. I’m thrilled. Our school has not experienced this type of leadership before. Many faculty and staff are reticent to unite until they see results, we have all been burned under weak leadership. This was a volunteer retreat capped at twenty participants, it attracted those genuinely interested and/or strongly opinionated.

Also as a student of innovation, I had a personal agenda of influencing a critical mass of these twenty participants (early adopters) with personal ideas I had for the vision of the school. The participants were a mix of faculty, administration and staff. I was concerned to see how I would balance my new ideas for the school with collective opinion. What if the collective doesn’t even hear me? Would I be stubborn and self-serving to continue or would it be a positive decision to remain persistent in pushing through an idea for the ‘common good?’ (Yes, this would be my opinion of the common good.) Is it possible to believe in a systemic approach and want to influence the group with your own ideas? I wasn’t sure how I would balance this contradiction of beliefs. (I have been planting seeds of my ‘vision’ for about two years. I am not in a position of leadership. I am a faculty member. I am a strong believer of personal and social/cultural leadership from the middle.)

Humbled and greatly impressed with the panel of participants, I learned a valuable lesson: the collective can be brilliant! Everyone had fantastic ideas and perspectives. This was a wonderful experience and I was pleased with the results of the weekend. The panel of twenty (early adopters) will return to school and begin to model and diffuse. My school has passed through Kotter’s first three steps. What I didn’t realize, until my experience this weekend, was that these early steps are never completed, they must be regularly checked, revisited and given appropriate attention throughout the process.

In Kotter’s list, my school’s attempt for change is at number four – we are in danger of under communicating our Vision by a factor of ten. Okay, but what does this mean? How do I know if my efforts, or the ‘early adopter’s’ efforts, are improving our lines of communication enough? What if we all assume we are communicating at a factor of ten? This is a muddy area. Will the President ‘walk the talk’? Will he model? Who’s job is it to oversee the big picture of progress? Will he inform and offer suggestions for improved communication before it’s too late, before we lose adoption of our early majority?

Are there any of you in leadership positions who have experienced this first hand? Are Kotter’s steps just that easy? Or just that hard?