In addition to change management (now called change enablement), organizational change management is a general management practice in ITIL 4. It focuses on changing people’s behavior and culture for success. People are the core of organizational change management.
Therefore, it must ensure the creation of clear and relevant goals, strong and committed leadership, willing and ready participation, and sustainable improvement.
Furthermore, organizational transformation is not an overnight achievement but a journey. For effective organizational change management, there are many models that an organization can adopt. One of these models is Kotter’s 8-step Model.
John P. Kotter’s 8-step Model Explained
John P. Kotter’s 8-step Model for change management is a framework for managing change in organizations. Kotter’s 8-step Model provides a comprehensive approach to change management and has been widely adopted globally. The 8-step Model includes the following steps:
· Create a sense of urgency
· Create a coalition
· Formulate a strategic and innovative vision
· Communicate the vision for change
· Enable actions by removing barriers
· Create short-term wins
· Maintain momentum
· Anchor the change.
Each of these changes is covered in more detail below.
Kotter’s 8-step Model Step 1: Create a sense of urgency
This step in Kotter’s 8-step Model includes identifying the need for change ( and
organizational change management) and communicating the urgency to all stakeholders. It is essential to ensure that everyone understands the importance of the change, and the sense of urgency helps create the initial motivation to get things moving.
The following can be used to create a sense of urgency:
- Identify existing threats and scenarios and show what these will mean in the future.
- Identify opportunities that may be exploited.
- Communicate honestly with people and provide compelling reasons to get people talking.
- Cite requests from customers, external stakeholders, and people active in the issue to strengthen the change argument.
For change management to succeed, Kotter suggests that you must work really hard at this first step – spending significant time and energy creating urgency before moving on to the next steps.
Kotter’s 8-step Model Step 2: Create a coalition
This step in Kotter’s 8-step Model includes identifying key stakeholders and building a team to lead the change initiative. This need requires strong leadership and visible support from key people in the organization because managing change is not enough; you must lead it.
Effective change leaders can be found throughout your organization, and this doesn’t necessarily follow traditional organizational hierarchies. A coalition or team of influential people can have influence that comes from various sources, including job title, position, expertise, and political importance. Once formed, the “change coalition” must work as a team and continue to create urgency and momentum around the need for change.
To form a coalition:
- Ensure you have a good mix of people from different departments and levels