Kotter International Dictionary

8 Steps

The successful process of change described in the book Leading Change. Without practicing the 8 Steps properly and in the right order, organizational change will always fail. As a result of practicing the 8 Steps correctly, organizations can make truly transformative changes and help those changes take hold inside their culture.

A++

A value of the organization that states that the work Kotter International does has to be truly extraordinary. Anything that does not meet that standard must be relentlessly improved until that standard is met in order to truly reach Millions Leading, Billions Benefitting.

Alice

A character in the book . Alice is a tough, practical penguin with a reputation for getting things done. She is one of the first to believe Fred’s warning’s that the colony is in terrible danger.

A Sense of Urgency

(a.k.a., True Urgency). A sense that there are great opportunities ahead, and thus work should be done as quickly as possible that moves the organization forward towards that opportunity. Not to be confused with False Urgency. Also the title of a book written in 2008 by John Kotter.

Assessments

A process for understanding how employees feel about change inside an organization. Used to assess how much current True Urgency exists. Used instead of Surveys.

Balance 

Balance implies changing 30/70 to 50/50, or sometimes 30/70 to 40/60 (with some rationale for why 40/60 was a better “balance”). This zero-sum logic, and the actions that follow, are not what you find in great organizations, great change efforts, or great cultures. In our research published in Corporate Culture and Performance, for example, we reported that the widely accepted idea that a culture should balance the interests of all of the big three constituencies (customers, stockholders, and employees), and not just overwhelmingly focus on one (stockholders, for example), was not what we found. GM was in perfect 33/33/33 balance. The management culture was satisfied with a C grade in all three cases. And they achieved what the culture drove: a perfect balance of unhappy customers, unhappy stockholders, and unhappy employees. The firms with great long term performance on financial measures had cultures that valued all three constituencies so much---so loved their customers and employees and stockholders--that they did what was needed to get grades of A, A, and A.               

Barriers

Any obstacle inside an organization that delays or hinders change and the successful completion of the 8 Steps. Largely dealt with in Step 5, the Guiding Coalition removes barriers so as to Empower Change.

Big Opportunity

The Big Opportunity describes conditions facing the organization that have come together to create a rare chance to leap ahead through a transformative change.  It defines both what is possible and why.

Buddy

A character in the book . A well trusted and liked penguin, but not necessarily an intellectual heavyweight. Someone like Buddy is essential to have on your side when you’re leading a major change.

Cascading

Use is discouraged. Communicating information from above with the brute force of gravity, much like a very large cascade of water. See also Rolling Out.

Champion

Use is discouraged. The idea that one person is responsible for leading change through an organization, when in fact many more are required for true change.

Change Management

Major change is too complex to be managed, it must be led.

Consulting Jargon

(e.g., Strategic imperatives, Ecosystem, Communication Platforms, Learning Platforms, Deliverables, Change Project, etc.) Use is discouraged. Used by people that want to sound important, these phrases that have become standard practice in the traditional consulting industry yet have no real value in guiding, informing or inspiring people. See also Change Management.

Cultural Change

The process of an organizational culture moving through the 8 Steps of productive change. Only after reaching the final step does cultural change truly take root inside an organization. See also Transformation.

Do Something

The principle that it is better to create lasting positive change in the world through one’s actions, as opposed to just words.

Engage

The action of interacting with people in ways that guide, inform and inspire them to produce needed change in their own organizations. See also Engagement, Engagement Leader and Engagement Support Leader.

Engagement

The process of engaging with a client and guiding, informing and inspiring them to carry out the 8 Steps model. 

Engagement Leader

The leader of an engagement. Tasked with guiding, informing and inspiring the client to move through the 8 Steps of productive change.

False Urgency

The belief that any activity is better than none, and that a packed meeting calendar and midnight emails are the best way to produce change inside organizations. Not to be confused with True Urgency.

Fissures

Literally, small cracks in an Iceberg that may lead to its eventual breakup. Figuratively, structural changes that can eventually render moot the way an organization traditionally does business. Featured in the book

Fred

A character in the book . Fred is a penguin who initially sees a change happening, and then has to convince the rest of the colony to see what he sees. The first penguin he convinces is Alice.

Guide, Inform & Inspire

The actions of an Engagement Leader on an Engagement. These actions Pull, not Push the client towards wanting to produce change on their own.

Guiding Coalition

A coalition assembled by the Urgency Core Team in the 2nd step of the 8 Step Process of transformative change. This coalition, made up of people throughout the organization, is tasked with guiding the changes to be made in the subsequent steps.

Head and Heart

Leaders need to engage both head and heart in order to convince people to undertake change. Mere facts and data will not be sufficient to motivate people – they must be moved by emotions as well.

Iceberg

A concept from the book . The iceberg is where the colony of penguins lives. Metaphorically, the iceberg is your organization and the traditional way it does business. All icebergs eventually melt, some more quickly than others.

John Kotter

Chief Innovation Officer at Kotter International. The author of several books such as Leading Change, A Sense of Urgency and .

Kotter International

An organization devoted to  people so that they can become better leaders, successfully transform organizations into truly great enterprises, and build a better world for future generations. Guided by the works and methodologies of John Kotter. See also Do Something.

Leadership

The act of leading others to embrace change by using Pull, not Push words and by reaching both the Head and Heart.

Leadership Team

A team inside an organization which appoints the Urgency Core Team to begin the task of raising True Urgency inside the organization.

Leading Change

A book written by John Kotter in 1996. The book describes an 8 Step process for how to lead productive change inside organizations. The book is instrumental in helping organizations understand how to “do” change successfully.

Louis

A character in the book . The leader of the penguin colony, he helps to assemble a key team to find a solution to the melting problem, as well as to guide the colony toward a new way of living.

Management vs. Leadership

The notion that, over time, most organizations accumulate a surplus of management talent but not enough leadership talent. In order to correct this, organizations must ensure that there is sufficient leadership throughout all levels of the organization.

Managing Change

Use is discouraged. Since change is continuous and omnipresent, it cannot be “managed”. Instead, change must be led. See also Leading Change.

NoNo

A character in the book . NoNo is a penguin that dismisses concerns about melting icebergs, and instead feels everything is fine. NoNos exist in organizations, as those who do not believe any change is necessary.

Our Iceberg Is Melting

A book published in 2005 about a colony of penguins facing dramatic change. While the characters are penguins, the lessons nevertheless apply to organizations and people facing change.

Professor

A character in the book . The Professor helps understand new information in a scientific way and helps the penguin colony process that information to live better.

Project Manager, Management

Use is discouraged. Projects have defined beginnings and ends, with specific inputs and resources. Change is continuous and omnipresent, and cannot be “managed.” See also Managing change.

Pull, not Push

The notion that people can best be convinced to do something when symbols and stories are created that pull them forward into voluntary actions, not push them from behind into actions they may not want to do. See also Head and Heart.

Purge and Delegate

Getting junk and low priority items off of calendars so you can focus more on important work. In a big change effort, this starts at the very beginning by people who feel a sense of urgency and who WANT more time to make others feel urgent and to allow them to find ways every day to pursue big opportunities.

Re-architect a Calendar 

Not only changing your calendar of meetings, trips, etc. for the next week/month/quarter, but creating a new structure within which to add items to your calendar. In big change efforts, often happens at the very beginning, in step 1, as people put in a new process for what gets onto their calendars (high priority items associated with pursuing a big opportunity, not low priority or simply no longer relevant activities). Is related to the term “purge and delegate”.

Reports

Use is discouraged. Reports are traditionally produced by a Consultant and are dropped, dramatically, on the desk of employees in an organization, usually to be ignored.

Rolling Out

Use is discouraged. The implementation of forced changes from above, as in the manner of a giant bowling ball, crushing everything in its path. See also Cascading.

Scouts

Characters in the book . Scouts are a new role inside a penguin colony that had previously been immobile. Scouts help define new paths to vision state and help create new wins in the path toward transformation. 

Seagulls

Characters in the book . They represent a source of inspiration for potential change for Whe penguins, in the form of a new way of life not tied to one particular iceberg.

Short Term Wins

The event described in Step 6 of the 8 Step model. In this step, enough organizational barriers have been removed so that the can produce a visible sign of success, which drive momentum for more change. 

Slide Deck

Use is discouraged. A lengthy, boring presentation that puts people to sleep and is of little or no value. Does not guide, inform nor inspire.

Surveys

Use is discouraged. An overused tool inside organizations that attempts to divine organizational opinion, but is often left unimplemented or ignored. See instead Assessments.

Transformation

The act of an organization changing itself into something new as a result of the 8 Steps. The organization identifies a Big Opportunity, and then sets about capturing it through change efforts.

True Urgency

A sense that there are great opportunities ahead, and thus work should be done as quickly as possible that moves the organization forward towards that opportunity. Not to be confused with False Urgency. See also A Sense of Urgency.

Urgency Core Team

A select group of individuals who are chosen by the Leadership Team to help raise True Urgency inside the organization. This team helps select the , who helps drive the rest of the 8 Steps of productive change throughout the organization.

Vision

Identified in the 3rd Step of the 8 Steps, and then communicated in the 4th Step, this refers to a common picture of where people want their organization to go in light of the Big Opportunity. 

Walk alongside and leave behind

The philosophy guiding Engagements at Kotter International. Instead of trying to force change as an outside force, Engagement Leaders perform this action to try and Pull, not Push change from inside the organization.