I was browsing some articles on organizational change and came across this nice summary on Pink Elephant. The statistic that jumped out at me was that 70% of change initiatives fail. The article goes on to assert two main causes for these failures:
- The change is not started early enough, or is not well managed during execution
- People affected by the change are not sufficiently guided, and consequently don’t adopt or sustain the change
According to the article, “Many organizations focus on the first reason and totally ignore the second.” When I consider where IT needs work in leading change, #2 sticks out to me. So, how can I effectively guide the agency?
In my Technology Management Capstone course, one of the models I teach my students is John Kotter’s model of organizational change management, which is arguably the most famous model ever for leading an organization through change. Kotter’s book, Our Iceberg is Melting, is a classic in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Kotter’s model consists of eight steps:
- Create a Sense of Urgency
- Build a Guiding Coalition
- Form a Strategic Vision and Initiatives
- Enlist a Volunteer Army
- Enable Action by Removing Barriers
- Generate Short-Term Wins
- Sustain Acceleration
- Institute Change
Notice that most of the work happens before the the change is instituted. Kotter’s steps are a good way to make sure that the organization has sufficient buy-in and sustainability to carry out the fast-paced changes we have to achieve in IT.