Change, Change, Change

I would be willing to be that more books have written about CHANGE than any other topic. Heck, I've read several books about the topic. Each one takes a spin and focuses (in some way) on the innovators, early adopters, early majority, the later majority, and the laggards.

Change guru John Kotter outlines change in his book Our Iceberg Is Melting. I am on the board for the Michigan Association of State and Federal Program Specialists which places a focus on helping at risk children. Our book study this year was Kotter's book. It makes you think.

His eight steps:

1. Create a Sense of Urgency: Help others see the need for change and the importance of acting immediately.

2. Pull Together the Guiding Team: Make sure there is a powerful group guiding the change—one with leadership skills, bias for action, credibility, communications ability, authority, analytical skills.

3. Develop the Change Vision and Strategy: Clarify how the future will be different from the past, and how you can make that future a reality.

4. Communicate for Understanding and Buy-in: Make sure as many others as possible understand and accept the vision and the strategy.

5. Empower Others to Act: Remove as many barriers as possible so that those who want to make the vision a reality can do so.

6. Produce Short-Term Wins: Create some visible, unambiguous successes as soon as possible.

7. Don’t Let Up: Press harder and faster after the first successes. Be relentless with instituting change after change until the vision becomes a reality.

8. Create a New Culture: Hold on to the new ways of behaving, and make sure they succeed, until they become a part of the very culture of the group.

During the past several months, I have been involved in at least eight meetings that have involved our school district's major change initiative. We have been involved with groups of board members, teachers, administrators, community members ... It's been an interesting process. The process of change is difficult on everyone.

Changing the behavior of people is the most important challenge for businesses trying to compete in a turbulent world, says Kotter, a Harvard Business School professor who has studied dozens of organizations in the midst of upheaval: "The central issue is never strategy, structure, culture, or systems. The core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people (Fast Company Magazine, Dec. 2007)." Because people are those who can make or break a process.

Welcome to change.