Kotters 8 steps for implementing strategy

Kotter's eight step change model can be summarised as:

• 1.Increase urgency - inspire people to move, make objectives real and relevant.
• 2.Build the guiding team - get the right people in place with the right emotional commitment, and the right mix of skills and levels.
• 3.Get the vision right - get the team to establish a simple vision and strategy, focus on emotional and creative aspects necessary to drive service and efficiency.
• 4.Communicate for buy-in - Involve as many people as possible, communicate the essentials, simply, and to appeal and respond to people's needs. De-clutter communications - make technology work for you rather than against.
• 5.Empower action - Remove obstacles, enable constructive feedback and lots of support from leaders - reward and recognise progress and achievements.
• 6.Create short-term wins - Set aims that are easy to achieve - in bite-size chunks. Manageable numbers of initiatives. Finish current stages before starting new ones.
• 7.Don't let up - Foster and encourage determination and persistence - ongoing change - encourage ongoing progress reporting - highlight achieved and future milestones.
• 8.Make change stick - Reinforce the value of successful change via recruitment, promotion, new change leaders. Weave change into culture.

References

Kotter - Why Transformation Efforts Fail. HBR March-April 1995