Best Practices in Managing Change 
                                                
                                               Overview 
                                               This table summarizes the ten best practices for leading change identified by one of the leading 
                                               researchers on change, Harvard Business School professor John Kotter. It identifies the practices, the 
                                               action steps you can take, and the things to watch out for. 
                                                
                                                Practice                                                              Actions Needed                                                                                                        Pitfalls 
                                                Establish a sense of                                                 • Examine market and competitive                                                                                       • Underestimating the difficulty of 
                                                urgency                                                                 realities for potential crises and                                                                                     driving people from their comfort 
                                                                                                                        untapped opportunities.                                                                                                zones 
                                                                                                                     • Convince at least 75% of your managers                                                                               • Becoming paralyzed by risks 
                                                                                                                        that the status quo is more dangerous 
                                                                                                                        than the unknown. 
                                                Form a powerful                                                      • Assemble a group with shared                                                                                         • No prior experience in teamwork at 
                                                guiding coalition                                                       commitment and enough power to lead                                                                                    the top 
                                                                                                                        the change effort.                                                                                                   • Relegating team leadership to an HR, 
                                                                                                                     • Encourage them to work as a team                                                                                        quality, or strategic-planning 
                                                                                                                        outside the normal hierarchy.                                                                                          executive rather than a senior line 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               manager 
                                                Create a vision                                                      • Create a vision to direct the change effort.                                                                          • Presenting a vision that is too 
                                                                                                                     • Develop strategies for realizing that vision.                                                                           complicated or vague to be 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               communicated in five minutes 
                                                                                                                         
                                                Communicate the                                                      • Use every vehicle possible to                                                                                        • Undercommunicating the vision 
                                                                                                                         
                                                vision                                                                  communicate the new vision and                                                                                      • Behaving in ways antithetical to 
                                                                                                                        strategies for achieving it.                                                                                           the vision 
                                                                                                                     • Teach new behaviors by the example of 
                                                                                                                        the guiding coalition. 
                                                Empower others to                                                    • Remove or alter systems or structures                                                                                • Failing to remove powerful 
                                                act on the vision                                                       undermining the vision.                                                                                                individuals who resist the change 
                                                                                                                     • Encourage risk taking and nontraditional                                                                                effort 
                                                                                                                        ideas, activities, and actions. 
                                                Plan for and create                                                  • Define and engineer visible                                                                                           • Leaving short-term successes up to 
                                                short-term wins                                                         performance improvements.                                                                                              chance 
                                                                                                                     • Recognize and reward employees                                                                                       • Failing to score successes early 
                                                                                                                        contributing to those improvements.                                                                                    enough (12-24 months into the 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               change effort) 
                                                Consolidate improve-                                                 • Use increased credibility from early wins                                                                            • Declaring victory too soon—with 
                                                ments and produce                                                       to change systems, structures, and                                                                                     the first performance improvement 
                                                more change                                                             policies undermining the vision.                                                                                    • Allowing resistors to convince 
                                                                                                                     • Hire, promote, and develop employees                                                                                    “troops” that the war has been won 
                                                                                                                        who can implement the vision. 
                                                                                                                     • Reinvigorate the change process with 
                                                                                                                        new projects and change agents. 
                                                Institutionalize new                                                 • Articulate  connections  between  new                                                                                • Not creating new social norms and 
                                                approaches                                                              behaviors and corporate success.                                                                                       shared values consistent with 
                                                                                                                     • Create  leadership  development  and                                                                                    changes 
                                                                                                                        succession  plans  consistent  with  the                                                                            • Promoting people into leadership 
                                                                                                                        new approach.                                                                                                          positions who don’t personify the 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               new approach 
                                                
                                               Adapted from: J.Kotter. 1996. Leading Change. Harvard Business Press.