John Kotter’s Eight-Step Model for leading change remains a popular approach for giving structure to the difficult process of organizational change. Senior leadership begins the change process by rallying the organization to act. It does this by creating a sense of urgency for a needed change. (Read More at Leading Change Step 1 – Create a Sense of Urgency.) Second, senior leadership forms a credible guiding coalition and then delegates the authority to them to work across the organization. (Read More at Leading Change Step 2 – Create the Guiding Coalition.) Once these first two steps are successfully implemented, the third step of the model is to develop a change vision and strategy. Organizations sometimes rush through this step too quickly. When done correctly, however, it requires time to get a change vision and strategy right.
What the Change Vision and Strategy Accomplishes
The change vision and strategy give the organization a picture of what the future looks like after the change is implemented. It tells organizational stakeholders why they should let go of the past, sacrifice and work hard in the present, and follow senior leadership into the future. It creates a sensible and appealing picture of the future, and it provides guidance for organizational decision-making. Sensible and appealing are important. Managers and employees especially will want to know that the proposed change is feasible and desirable. If either is missing, they will not embrace the change. It is not in the managers and employees best interests to make the necessary sacrifices now for a future that is worse than the present. Senior leadership and the guiding coalition must develop a compelling message that will tell managers and employees that the future is a desirable place to go.
How the Change Vision and Strategy is Developed
A critical responsibility for leadership is setting the direction for the organization for the future. For this reason, senior leadership must retain some of the responsibility for creating a high-level description of the change vision and strategy. Delegating all of the responsibility for this step to the guiding coalition is not desirable. Often, it is best for a single senior leader or a small group of senior leaders to make a first draft. From there, the guiding coalition can refine the draft. An effective process uses data to produce the vision and strategy. For example, company business data, market data, emerging business trends, forecasts, etc. are all relevant data to produce a sensible and appealing change vision and strategy. Some patience is required for this step as different individuals will have various perspectives on the best route to reach the desirable future. Many roads lead to New York, but not all routes make sense! As smart and opinionated people work on developing a change vision and strategy, sufficient time should be allowed for the two steps forward and one step back group dynamic.
What Does a Successful Change Vision and Strategy Look Like
Once completed, senior leadership and the guiding coalition should be able to describe the change vision and strategy in five minutes. It will be easy to communicate. Complexity is not good here! If employees and managers do not understand the desired future, the resulting organizational change initiatives will be unsuccessful. A successful change vision and strategy will identify the areas of change, provide clear and realistic targets for measuring success, and appeal to the long-term interests of organizational stakeholders.
Senior leadership, in conjunction with its guiding coalition, greatly enhances the chances of success for a change effort when it develops a sensible and appealing picture of the future. This sensible and appealing change vision and strategy provides the rationale for the necessary hard work and sacrifice to create that future. With this third step implemented, senior leadership and the guiding coalition can begin the fourth step, Communicate the Change Vision. I will address this step in a future post.
About the Author
Robert Tanner is the founder of the Management is a Journey Blog and Principal Consultant at Business Consulting Solutions LLC. He is a certified change management consultant, management mentor, trainer, and an Adjunct Professor of Management. Robert has a passion for helping managers and leaders fulfill their potential. Connect with Robert on Google+ and Twitter. To join the mailing list, subscribe here.
Revisiting Colin Powell’s 13 Rules of Leadership 
Leading Change (Step 2) – Create the Guiding Coalition 
Organizational Change: 8 Reasons Why People Resist Change 
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