Category: Management of Change

Writing as a guest author, Gary Borland concludes his series on Management of Change. He is happy to enter into communication with readers. Contact him by clicking on his name, above. In order to maximise the opportunities to unlock an organisational vision, it is essential to have a demonstrable and commonly understood way in which those in the church or ministry work together to deliver it. Strategy (the ‘how’) is the way in which this is done to maximise and optimise resources and to create clear line of sight for everyone in the organisation to align their contribution to in support of unlocking the vision and delivering the mission. A poor or absent strategy is seen in a lack of motivation to participate or contribute, disjointed activities delivered to varying…

In the penultimate blog in this series guest writer Gary Borland touches on the final steps of ‘Kotter’s 8 Step Process for Leading Change’. The Strategic Planning Process and supporting plans should by now be ready to deliver and/or delivering a considerable amount of what the overall programme sought to achieve. Maintaining focus and momentum is vital; programmes become highly susceptible to reversing out the benefits if either is lost. Let’s look at the final 2 steps in ‘Implementing & Sustaining Change’. Step 7 – Never Let Up The challenge of maintaining focus and momentum can vary at different times of a change or transformation programme, but it’s important to realise that one of the most dangerous times is after considerable progress has already been made. Once we have in place a…

My guest contributor, Gary Borland, continues his series on Management of Change. He is happy to receive enquiries. Last week, we continued our overview of ‘Kotter’s 8 Step Process for Leading Change’ as an overlay to a Strategic Planning Process. Concurrent and parallel activity is commonplace in major change or transformation programmes. In this blog, we will look at the next 2 steps step in ‘Engaging & Enabling The Whole Organisation’ which Kotter describes as: Step 5: ‘Empower Broad-Based Action’ Step 6: ‘Generate Short-Term Wins’ Step 5 – ‘Empower Broad-Based Action’ Embrace challenge The number of obstacles in the way of change are often seen only when you start asking people - and the best people to ask are not the leaders themselves! Leaders like to believe that they empower…

Last week, we continued our overview of ‘Kotter’s 8 Step Process for Leading Change’. As an overlay to a Strategic Planning Process, these steps can be highly effective, and can take place concurrently, depending on the nature of the programme. We are now moving onto the first step in ‘Engaging and Enabling The Whole Organisation’ which Kotter describes as: Step 4 – ‘Communicate The Vision for Buy-In’ Irrespective of who defined the change vision the need to communicate it is a critical next step in engaging and enrolling people at all levels and in all areas across the organisation. Unfortunately, many leaders outsource communications to the ‘comms person’ or ‘comms team’ and then wonder why people ‘don’t get it’. Ownership of the communication process by the leaders is vital. Devote…

Last week, we started to look at ‘Kotter’s 8 Step Process for Leading Change’. Importantly, we touched on the need to use these steps as an overlay to a Strategic Planning Process. It’s also worth reiterating that although Kotter’s steps can appear linear, effective application often involves concurrent and parallel activity aligned with the Strategic Plan. We will now look at the next 2 steps in ‘Creating a Climate for Change’ which Kotter describes as: Step 2: ‘Create The Guiding Coalition’ Step 3: ‘Develop a Change Vision’ Step 2 – ‘Create The Guiding Coalition’ [caption id="attachment_5849" align="alignright" width="316"] Commission's Guiding Coalition in a Q/A session during the recent Prayer Days[/caption] A Guiding Coalition is a group or team of people with enough influence, capability and credibility to lead a change…

‘Kotter’s 8 Step Process for Leading Change’ was introduced last week as a helpful model for understanding and managing change, particularly when used in conjunction with a Strategic Planning Process and associated Strategic Plan. It’s important to reiterate that while Kotter’s steps appear linear, there needs to be concurrent/parallel activity which is overlaid and aligned with the Strategic Plan. Kotter’s model is not, in my opinion, a strategy in itself, but rather a very good overlay to optimise the likelihood of success. The steps are shown in the diagram below: We will now look at the first step in ‘Creating a Climate for Change’ which Kotter describes as: Step 1 – ‘Establish a Sense of Urgency’ Change is difficult, transformation is very difficult. Without a genuine sense of urgency, minor…