Leading Change

The cover of professor John P. Kotter’s book shows penguins shuffling on a precipice as one brave bird leaps into the water. In too many organizations, Kotter says, executives shy away from the precipice while someone lower in the pecking order jumps.

Whenever human communities are forced to adjust to shifting conditions, pain is ever present. But a significant amount of the waste and anguish we’ve witnessed in the past decade is avoidable.John P Kotter

To this point, Kotter explains that managers tend to think in linear, risk-limiting ways. Transformational change, he insists, can occur only when a coalition of leaders creates a sense of urgency.