From Leadership to Change
Early on in his career Kotter decided to focus on behaviour as a tool for performance, and sought to better understand the relationship between these two factors. Though he initially concentrated on organizational behaviour, Kotter, over time, shifted his focus to the subject of leadership, specifically looking at the characteristics that distinguish outstanding leaders. Kotter realized that leaders were crucial in facilitating significant change in increasingly fast-paced environments. He found that “change” was a relatively blank page in management scholarship, at the time, and decided that it would be the focus of his studies, creating a niche that would make him famous. Pattern analysis, based on tremendous amounts of observation and data collected over ten years concerning companies undergoing large-scale change initiatives, led Kotter to a startling realization. This discovery would from the basis of what would become his world-famous eight-step model of change. He quickly put on paper what was later developed into his 1996 bestseller, Leading Change. It is interesting that Kotter’s insight came only after long immersion in the topic, after spending a considerable time “mucking around” in the data. But, when it came, it came quickly: an experience that is not uncommon. We will now move on to review Kotter’s most important contributions to change leadership and change management.