1.
Kotter’s 8-Steps for Leading
Change
Helen Teague, M.Ed.
EDLT 721
Dr. Paul Sparks

2.
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Kotter’s Model for Leading Change
1. Establish A Sense of Urgency
2. Create a Unified Guiding Coalition
3. Develop and Reinforce the Vision
4. Communicate the Change Vision
5. Empower and Remove Barriers
6. Generate Short Term Wins
7. Model the Way-Prototype the Change
8. Incorporate and Connect Changes into Culture
- John P. Kotter, Leading Change (1996).

3.
3
1. Establish a Sense of Urgency
• 10,000 people turn 65 or older every day
• In 2010, the 65-74 age group (20.8 million)
was 10 times larger than in 1900.
• 10-12 million older Americans are in need
of long-term medical care.
• No national strategy exists to finance and
provide long-term care in the U.S.
• Social Security funds set to expire in 2033

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1. Establish a Sense of
Urgency (con’t)
• In 2013, Older Adults received the lowest
COLA paid in the past decade (1.7%)
• Older Adults have lost 34% of their
purchasing power
• 15 million people currently provide unpaid
care for which averages 25 hours per week

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2. Create the Guiding Coalition
Among My Dream Team…
• TREA Senior Citizens League (TSCL)
• Dr. Shaun Casey, Special Advisor to Secretary of State John Kerry
• Judy Feder, Professor of Public Policy, Georgetown Public Policy
Institute, Former Staff Director of the Pepper Commission
• Grace-Marie Turner, President, Gallen Institute
• Katherine Hayes, Director of Health Policy at the Bipartisan
Policy Center
• Howard Gleckman, Author of Caring for Our Parents

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3. Develop a Change Vision
• Allow employees to add parents to their
company insurance policies.
• Allow family members to deduct
expenses for parents’ supplemental
insurance coverage
• Allow family members to deduct all or
part of expenses for home health
workers and home health caregivers.

7.
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4. Communicate the Change
Vision
• Communicate the 3-part change vision using
every forum, both formal and informal
• Communicate via digital media
• Communicate via social media
• Communicate via grassroots and special
interest groups
• Educate members of Congress

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5. Empower Action
• Plan and Encourage faith-based and
community events
• Plan an exhibit “Images of Aging” for inclusion
in the Library of Congress collection
• Encourage similar contests and exhibits
• Lobby for tax credits and deductions.

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6. Generate Short-term Wins
• Constant newsfeed of increased efforts and
wins from Step 5
• Reward change agents
• Help fine-tune the vision and strategies
• Continue research and financial forecasts
• Build Keep employers in the loop
• Publicize inter-generational events
• Lead and reflect gratitude

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Stages of Adoption
Adoption Over Time
Laggards
100%
0%
Everitt M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations (1983).

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7. Consolidate Gains /
Prototype the Change
• Encourage Guiding Coalition Leadership,
special interest groups, lobbyists to clarify
the vision and keep urgency up
• Continue to educate the public through
university schools of gerontology,
conferences, conventions
• Eliminate barriers
• Encourage ombudsmen

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8. Incorporate and Connect
Changes into Culture
• Culture change comes last, not first
• Continue to focus on the 80 million-member
Baby Boomer, active older American
• Challenge perception of the frail older American
• Look to models such as social insurance and
community-based models.

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“In times of change, all norms and
customs that people count on are
stripped away. ..
Communication fills that gap.”
-Tim Coan