Kotter's Eight Stages

The author in his article begins by illustrating his experience with more than 100 companies attempting to redo themselves, from large organizations, such as Ford to small ones, such as Landmark Communications, as well as companies, such as General Motors in the United States and British Airways in Britain. In his illustration, he cites that successful change inside these organizations and companies range from extremely successful to complete failure. Due to his experiences, it is established that change itself is a process that consists of phases or steps that need to be accomplished for the purpose of producing a satisfying change. Kotter in his article has identified eight stages a company or an organization needs to successfully complete
The company needs to convince about 75% of the managers that the normal way the company is operating is dangerous. Therefore, the company in this stage needs to identify and discuss problems, potential problems, and major opportunities to produce satisfying change. In the second stage, the company assembles a group of staff members to lead the effort of change. The company in this stage encourages the group of staff members to work as a team outside the usual hierarchy. In the third stage, the company creates a vision that directs the effort of change. Strategies are developed in order to realize the created vision. In the fourth stage, the created vision and strategies for achieving it are
In the first stage, change can be undermined when the company underestimates the difficulty of driving staff members away from their comfort zones. The company manager become paralyzed by the risks associated with changing the normal way the company operates. In the second stage, change may not be realized when the company underestimates the difficulty of producing change and hence the significance of meaningful guiding coalition. This implies that groups that have no strong leadership never attain the power needed to create guiding coalition needed to necessitate change. In the third stage, change may not come to fruition because the vision is too complicated and vague to be communicated to staff members. Without an elaborate vision, change efforts can not be realized ant the company succeeds in causing confusion that can lead the company to a wrong