The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations - Hardcover

Kotter, John P.; Cohen, Dan S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1578512549 ISBN 13: 9781578512546

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press, 2002

Synopsis

John Kotter's international bestseller Leading Change struck a powerful chord with legions of managers everywhere. It acknowledged the cynicism, pain, and fear they faced in implementing large-scale change-but also armed them with an eight-step plan of action for leaping boldly forward in a turbulent world.

Now, Kotter and coauthor Dan S. Cohen delve deeper into the subject of change to get to the heart of how change actually happens. Through compelling, real-life stories from people in the trenches, in all kinds of organizations, the authors attack the fundamental problem that underlies every major transformation: How do you go beyond simply getting your message across to truly changing people's behavior?

Based on interviews within over 100 organizations in the midst of large-scale change, The Heart of Change delivers the simple yet provocative answer to this question, forever altering the way organizations and individuals approach change. While most companies believe change happens by making people think differently, Kotter and Cohen say the key lies in making them feel differently. They introduce a new dynamic-"see-feel-change"-that fuels action by showing people potent reasons for change that spark their emotions.

Organized around the revolutionary eight-step change process introduced in Leading Change, this story-driven book shows how the best change leaders use not just reports or analysis, but gloves, video cameras, airplanes, office design, and other concrete elements to impel people toward positive action. The authors reveal how this appeal to the heart-over the mind-motivates people to overcome even daunting obstacles to change and produce breathtaking results.

For individuals in every walk of life and companies in every stage of change, this compact, no-nonsense book captures the heart-and the how-of successful change.

John P. Kotter, world-renowned expert on leadership at the Harvard Business School, is the author of many books, including the award-winning, best-selling Leading Change. Dan S. Cohen is a Principal with Deloitte Consulting LLC.

About this title

Review:

The Heart of Change is John Kotter's follow-up to his enormously popular first book, Leading Change, in which he outlined a framework for implementing change that sidesteps many of the pitfalls common to organisations looking to turn themselves around. The essence of Kotter's message is this: the reason so many change initiatives fail is because they rely too much on "data gathering, analysis, report writing, and presentations" instead of a more creative approach aimed at grabbing the "feelings that motivate useful action". In The Heart of Change, Kotter, with the help of Dan Cohen, a partner at Deloitte Consulting, shows how his eight-step approach has worked at over 100 organisations. And in just about each case, change happened because the players were lead to "see" and "feel" the change. In one example, a sales representative underscores a sense of urgency to change a manufacturing process by showing a videotape interview of an unhappy customer; in another example, a purchasing manager makes his point to senior management about corporate waste by displaying on the company's boardroom table the 424 different kinds of gloves that the company had procured through different vendors at vastly different prices. Well written and loaded with real-life examples and practical advice The Heart of Change towers over other change management titles. Managers and employees at organisations both big and small will find much to draw from. --Harry C Edwards

About the Author:

John P. Kotter is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership at the Harvard Business School. Dan Cohen is a consultant with Deloitte and Touche Consulting Group.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1578512549
• ISBN 13: 9781578512546
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208