1. Why Transformation Efforts Fail by John P. Kotter
Ankit Jalan Harsimrat Kaur Govind Krishnan Mayank Kumar
Leading Change

2. ▪ Introduction
▪ Eight steps to transforming your
organization
▪ Conclusion

3. Introduction
rvard Business School professor published the book “Leading Change”
rs for organizational change.
mental changes in how business is conducted in order to help cope with
arket environment”
e successful cases:
rough a series of phases that usually require a considerable length of
s only the illusion of speed and never produces a satisfying result.
f the phases can have a devastating impact, slowing momentum and

4. This step is important because without
motivation, people won’t help, and the effort goes
nowhere.
People have to be convinced, that the current
state of the organization is not the appropriate
one to face the future.
Over 50% of the companies fail in this first phase
because executives either underestimate or
overestimate the situation.
Transformation begin well when an organization
has a good leader or change champions.
ERROR 1: Not Establishing a Great Enough
Sense of Urgency

5. When there is urgency,
change can be defined,
which should include
people a Coalition for
who have power,
knowledge, credibility
and leadership skills. A successful team is
based on trust between
the team members and
a common goal
Team can be formed
with members from
Senior Managers, Board
Members, Customers
and even Union
Leaders.
Companies that fail in
phase two usually
underestimate the
difficulties of producing
change and thus the
importance of a
powerful guiding
coalition
ERROR 2: Not Creating a Powerful Enough
Guiding Coalition

6. Vision
Helps clarify the direction in
which an organization needs
to move.
Failed Transformations
• Detailed procedures,
goals, deadlines but no
sense of direction
• Complicated or blurry
vision
Impact of Unclear Vision
• Confusion in the
organization
• Incompatible projects
• Wasted efforts
Thumb Rule
Able to communicate the
vision to someone in five
minutes or less and get a
reaction that signifies both
understanding and interest
Error 3: Lacking a Vision

7. 3 Patterns of Under-
communication
• Holding only a single
meeting or sending out
a single communication
• Vision captures only
.0005% of the speeches
delivered
• Senior executives still
behave in ways that are
antithetical to the
vision.
Effective Transformation
• Possible through credible
communication
• Incorporate messages into
• Hour-by-hour activities
• Routine discussions about
business problems
• Regular performance
appraisals
• In a routine Q&A with
employees
• Using all communication
channels to broadcast vision
Walk the Talk
Example
Zero Distance- Innovation
Using Design Thinking at
Infosys
Error 4: Under communicating the Vision by a
Factor of Ten

8. 02
Not creating a powerful enough guiding
coalition:
• Met with 46 CEOs in Tokyo to establish
competitive strategies.
• Lee spread the new management
initiatives
to 1800 executives and produced a
book.
04
Under communicating the vision by a factor of 10:
• Chairman Lee unleashed a barrage of
methods, including lectures that he provided
himself, classes, books, and internal
broadcasts.
• The books were translated in many languages
and all employees were trained by the end of
1993. Refresher training was provided and
employees were asked to discuss the
01
Establishing the sense of urgency:
• Lee saw the Samsung products gathering dust
and ignored by customers in retail stores.
• Chairman Lee called an immediate meeting of
Samsung affiliates’ CEOs in LA.
03
Lacking a vision:
• Lee defined a “world-class company” as “a
company that contributes to society by providing
the most competitive goods and services to
customers based on high-quality talent and
technologies.”
• Lee wanted to shift the focus of executives from
quantity to quality.
The Samsung Way

9. ERROR 5: Not Removing Obstacles to New Vision
New Vision + Old systems & Structures = Failure
New Vision +New systems & Structure = Success
• Successful transformations require large number of people
• Communication is key parameter but not sufficient
Types of obstacles:
a. Mental Blockage
b. Organizational structure
c. Performance appraisal system
d. Bosses

10. Purpose of short term wins:
o Prove that its worth it
o Reward Efforts
o Fine tune vision & strategies
o Undermine cynics
o Keep executives involved
o Reinvigorate the effort
o Build Momentum
ERROR 6: Not systematically planning for and
creating short term wins

11. Managers declare victory of change
process as soon as they see first
signs of performance. This can be
catastrophic and may lead to
regression of new change process.
The initiators become satisfied and
the resistors find the celebration of
premature victory as the end of
change process. The troops are sent
home and they become reluctant to
again participate in change process.
Successful leaders see achievements
in short term as an opportunity to
tackle bigger problems.
The leaders should further promote,
hire, develop employees and use
change agents who can implement the
vision and understand that renewal
efforts take years not months.
Error 7: Declaring Victory Too Soon

12. Error 8: Not Anchoring Changes in the Corporate’s Culture
People should be made aware
about improvements in
performance due to new
approaches, behaviors and
attitude.
It's also important that
next generation of
company's leaders
continue to support the
change.
Poor succession
decision happens when
board is not an integral
part of the renewal
effort.
Change sticks in the
organization when it
becomes “the way we
do things around here”.
Sometimes CEOs do not resist
the board’s decision because
they think that it’s impossible
to undo the implemented
culture of change.