Introduction:

The managers in businesses usually find it difficult in decision making especially in cases
where the business is about to collapse. A keen manager or executive of any business should
predict and foresee signs of the business collapse early enough. The earlier one anticipates
the business failure, the better he or she has a chance of taking necessary action.

Every manager will have his or her strategies of implementing organizational change. How
best or worse the changes will be implemented on some factors, one among them is the
individual’s implementation skills and abilities. However, there some models of
implementing organizational changes that have been accepted globally. This means that such
models can apply to all most all businesses. On such model is the John Kotter's 8-step change
model. This paper focuses on Kotter's model in relation to most of the companies and how
the principles of this model can be applied to prevent business failure as well as implement
change.

Kotter's model gives direction and guidance to managers and executives in implementation of
transformational change in organizations. There are eight steps in John Kotter's change model
including: establishing sense of urgency, creation of a guiding coalition, development of
strategy and vision, communicating the vision of change, broad based empowerment action,
generating short term wins, consolidating gains to bring more change and anchoring of
change in the organizational culture (Reeves, 2009). The next section has a stepwise
approach to the eight steps of Kotter’s model has been discussed.

Kotter steps will be used to develop an action plan for each step. Many regard Dr John Kotter
as the authority on change and leadership. Kotter is a best-selling author of New York Times,
winning various awards for being business and management thought leader, and a Harvard
Professor to say the least. Kotter observed a lot of different organizations and leaders as they
were executing change strategies for betterment of their organizations. After over four
decades of observation, he has extracted and identified the factors of success and combined
them into a method which is popularly known as Eight-Step Process for Leading Change
(Kotter International, 2016).

Literature Review:

“Perhaps one of the most popular change management models, which is regarded as classic in
the field by most of the experts in the field, is John Kotter’s eight-step model for change. It
was first published in 1995 as an article in the Harvard Business Review (HBR), HBR
received most reprint requests for this article in that year” (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2009).
Eight-step model presented by John Kotter is based upon formation of a coalition, creation of
a new organizational vision, communication of the vision, empowerment of others to act,
development short term wins, consolidation of changes and improvements, and reinforcement
of change (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2009). The organization change situation’s DS2
currently faces can be addressed by utilizing Kotter’s change model.

The first step in eight-step change model plan is creation of urgency; in order for change to
occur, the organization has to really want change and form a sense of urgency around the
need for change. Forming urgency for change helps the organization develop motivation to
get the change process moving. Management of DS2 has not acknowledged the need of
change in the organization’s recruitment process, better known form urgency around the
issue.

Step two of the process is to form a powerful coalition; convince people within the
organization that the change is necessary. This step can be done by the organization’s lower-
level employees to help management recognize the need and urgency of change in the
organization’s recruitment process. According to Mind Tools (2015), this step of the process
requires powerful leadership and noticeable support from key people within the organization
(Mind Tools, 2015).

The third step of the eight-step change model is to create a vision for change. The vision for
change should be a vision that employees can easily grasp and remember. Most of the time
when people think about change they begin formulate several solutions and ideas,
management can associate those concepts to help develop an overall vision for change. When
developing the overall vision determine central values associated to the situation of change
management, prepare a short summary that demonstrates what the organization “sees” as the
organization’s future, make a strategy to help execute the vision formed, ensure the change
coalition understands the vision and can describe the vision, and develop and practice a
“vision speech” (Kotter International, 2016). Creating a vision is significant in driving
change as it aids the company develop strategies that will ensure that this vision is achieved.
Kotter’s fourth step involves communicating the new vision to the organization.

Step four of the process is to communicate the vision. Most organizations will have various
day-to-day communications, therefore it is essential for the organization to communicate the
change vision regularly, powerfully, and implant it in everything that the organization is
doing (Mind Tools, 2015).

Fifth Step of the change plan is to remove hindrances. Typically, with change comes
resistance. It is necessary for an organization to put the structure for change in place and
frequently check for obstacles and resistance. The ability for management to remove barriers
empowers employees within the organization to execute the change vision and implement
and helps them bring change. During the fifth stage of the change plan of the organization,
the leader can hire change manager whose main responsibility is to bring change properly,
inspect the structure of organization properly, understand complexity of job descriptions, and
compensation system and evaluations to make sure they are consistent with vision of
organization, identify and reward employees involved in making alterations possible, identify
those people who are being resistant to change and train them, and take appropriate actions to
rapidly eliminate blockades. (Anderson, 2010). The barriers can be eliminated within the
company by initiating some optimism through highlighting some inspirational or exemplary
cases among the workforce that have undergone successful change in the past (Dearman,
2016).

Create short-term wins is step six of Kotter’s change plan model. Success is huge motivator;
give the employees samples of victories early within the process of. During this step create
immediate, smaller goals, not only long-term objectives that will be achievable and have little
room for failure. The organizations change team or change agent will need to develop such
targets that will further motivate the organization as a whole. The change team or change
agents should seek “sure-fire” plans that can be implemented without assistance from any
sturdy critics of the change, analyse potential pros and cons of the targets, and try not to
choose targets that are too expensive. The management here play a crucial role of enhancing
sustained employee accountability as well as ensuring that the projects undertaken sail
through. The management also ought to devise new ways of completing projects whenever
there is limitation of funds.

The second last step is sustaining the acceleration. Here the managers and CEO employs
techniques like changing any systems or structures that are not in line with the vision. Other
people can be hired; promotions also occur at this time.

The last of step in this journey of change implementation is the change itself (Reeves, 2009).
Here the manager articulates connections between the new behaviours and success. Manager
then works on a way to promote succession of the new culture to ensure the company lasts
long.

Concept Theory with Practice:

As a manager of change my first step of change is to predict chances of the business failing,
the first step is to create a sense of urgency. This will be done differently as per different
people. All in all, the goal is to make all employees, and anybody involved to be sensitive and
prepared in saving the organization. So as a manager, I will create a sense of urgency among
the stakeholders that business is failing which will force people to take action.

After all the people are aware of the change that is just about to be implemented, the next
step I will take is to assemble the team or coalition that may effectively rally the rest in the
change implementation process (Anderson, 2010). This is critical especially when the
organization is big and is involving several people. As a manager, I will make sure everybody
understands the complexity of change and everybody is willing to work for survival of
organization.

My third step as manager of change will be creation of a vision and initiatives (Reeves,
2009). Visions assist people in knowing where they are headed. The vision will serve as a
target. Once the staff has internalized the vision, they will not relent until they have achieved
whatever they intend to achieve. This kind of relentlessness will help our team save business
from drowning. The fourth step will involve enlistment of a volunteer army. It is obvious that
some people may not be willing to drive change and save organization. Others will passively
participate in the process. It is the manager's duty to find the members who are intrinsically
motivated to drive the change.

My fifth step will be to facilitate action by removing barriers (Anderson, 2010). This is the
most sensitive part, and the manager needs to be on the lookout. Any persons who do not
seem to be perusing the same course as the rest should be thrown of board as rapidly as
possible. It is tough leading a team of people who are not interested in the results on the
board.

My third last step as manager will be generation of short-term wins (Anderson, 2010). By
doing this manager motivates the entire crew, himself included. It is human nature to be
contented when an achievement is made. The second last step is sustaining the acceleration.
Here I will employ techniques like changing any systems or structures that are not in line
with the vision. Other people can be hired; promotions also occur at this time.

The last of step in this journey of change implementation is the change itself (Reeves, 2009).
Here the leaders of change create connection between the successes of the change they were
trying to implement. So my last step will be implementation of change and making sure that
every necessary step is being taken for survival of the organization or not and who played a
vital role in saving it and who was not particularly involved. So these are all the steps that I
will take to implement the change in the organization.

Limitations:

The model simplifies these steps and makes them appear as easy to follow. However when
the management decides on the implementation of change, a few challenges are encountered.
For instance, most of the employees might not be willing, or others may be reluctant.
Sometimes it forces the management to persuade with them, especially if they are many
because you cannot fire all.

The other difficulty that the management faces is the interruption from political and power
matters. For example, the management may decide to lay off some workers, and they move to
court or unions slowing down the process. However, of this model is keenly followed and the
CEO acts firmly, timely and with consciousness, the design can save a collapsing business.
The major challenge comes from the employees’ tendency to resist change whenever it is
introduced in the company. Nevertheless, it is important to soldier on keeping in mind the
necessity of change for any company aspiring to retain relevance in the market like HP. Good
to note though is that the company has demonstrated some clear measures for managing
change by availing the required resources as well as boosting the opposers at the same time
recognizing the efforts of those for change by rewarding them accordingly.

Reflection of Skill Development:

Managers are required to develop modern technological skills to be in position to provide the
leadership behaviour discussed in the paper. The current world is changing rapidly at fast
pace and thus businesses with big ambitions have to keep abreast to lest they are left behind.
Various businesses have to consider the latest updates to integrate into their business for them
to remain relevant in the market (Kotter & Cohen, 2002). The major factor initiating change
is the technological advancement that organizations have to factor in no matter how costly or
difficult it might sound. Similarly, changes in the economy both domestic and globally might
necessitate the organizations to undergo some structural adjustments failure to which they
lose relevance in the market. For example, the cassette industry lost playground in the market
after they became obsolete as the world adopted the CD and DVD technologies (Kotter &
Cohen, 2002). Therefore, big companies ought to maintain their infrastructural values,
visions, regulations and policies up-to-date to cement their market dominance.

The fact that big organizations are more connected to the technological industry
where there is high rate of change dynamics, change becomes an inevitable component.
Managing change is, however, the greatest task any given leader in an organization especially
if it is met with some resistance will ever face (Cameron & Green, 2015). Instigating a
change in an organization is essential but might be the most difficult task. The success that
comes in handy with change relies heavily on how well one plans first as well as having
readily available correctional mechanism. Deciding on the best model to instigate change
within an organization has proven a challenge too. For instance, the Lean Six Sigma has been
widely accepted and adopted tool for enhancing performance in the organizations (Cameron
& Green, 2015). However, transforming into a lean organization and reap maximum benefits
is still a difficulty among many organizations. According to research done, lean transition has
shown a tendency of requiring emergent strategy that can only be found in the Kotter’s Eight-
Step Change management Model (Kotter & Cohen, 2002).

So managers should have latest technological understanding and skills and they should train
their people and keep them updated with latest skills which are related technological
advancement in order to bring and adapt change in an organization.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the Kotter’s Model is the perfect fit for initiating change in big organization; it
does come with its own challenges but development of appropriate skills by manager of
changes can help an organization survive in case of collapse in case of collapse. Kotter’s
model of change can help a manager design and implement the proper framework for change
and a leader of change despite of all the limitations can slowly bring change using all these
steps mentioned in the paper. According to my point of view, this method can help
organization survive big failures and it can help organization bring changes which are
necessary for survival.
Through this method employees adapt to the change, managers can monitor their behaviour
for both the positive and negative responses so that in the future, they can enhance the overall
change experience to make the process more streamlined and efficient.

Eight steps of Kotter’s plan helps managers develop an action plan for each step. John Kotter
is regarded by many as the authority on leadership and change and this is why his method is
considered one of the best for bringing change in the organization and when an organization
starts adapting change their chances of survival are higher every time.

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