Change Management Kotter\'s Sequence: Establishing a Sense

Change Management

Kotter's sequence: establishing a sense urgency creating a guiding coalition.

Change management: Best Buy's successful adoption of change

Change management: Best Buy's successful adoption of change

It is said that change is constant and the one constant in economic life is change. But despite the 'predictability' of change, the phenomenon of change resistance is another 'constant' in organizations. John Kotter in his book Leading Change offers an eight-step prescription to fight against change resistance, to create a positive environment that fosters change. The efficacy of Kotter's eight steps can be seen in Best Buy and its shift a results-only system of valuing employee's contributions, which stands in stark contrast to its previous attempts to institute change.

Establish a sense of urgency

At Best Buy, before adopting a results-only work environment, the organization was a "ferociously face-time place" (Smashing the Clock, 2006, Business Week). Burnout and attrition of high-quality employees was high, and working 8am to 8pm was common. One manager, as a way of increasing productivity instituted the change initiative by insisting "his team track its work -- every 15 minutes. As at many companies, the last one to turn out the lights won…managers were mired in analog-age inertia, often judging performance on how much they saw you, vs. how much you did" (Smashing the Clock, 2006, Business Week). Penalizing individuals for not working long enough hours simply created resentment, particularly because it forced people to spend time at the workplace, even when there was no clear purpose in doing so. This depleted rather than bolstered a drive for change. However, the first step of the positive change process was seeing that this was ineffective, and Best Buy had to end to truly increase the quality of results, not simply the number of hours worked by employees.

Form a powerful, guiding coalition

Two managers formed an initial coalition to create positive change at Best Buy. Kotter (1996) notes that change often starts with only two people, and such was the case with Best Buy. "Two managers -- one in the properties division, the other in communications -- were desperate. Top performers were complaining of unsustainable levels of stress, threatening business continuity just when Best Buy was rolling out its customer-centricity campaign in hundreds of stores" (Smashing the Clock, 2006, Business Week).

Create a vision

The two managers generated a vision of a results-only workplace, in contrast to previous efforts at change that tried to force employees to spend more time at their desks, and document every hour not spent in their cubicles. This was a radical approach to flextime -- employees would be valued solely by their results, not how much time they put in at the company. Workers could work from home, come in early and leave early, or come in late and leave late. They could work on the weekends to attend their child's school play during the week. "Performance would be based on output, not hours. Managers would base assessments on data and evidence, not feelings and anecdotes. The executives liked what they heard and agreed" (Smashing the Clock, 2006, Business Week).

Communicate the vision

As the two initiating managers adopted ROWE (results-only workplace environment) in their department, the idea gradually spread throughout the organization in a grassroots fashion. Waiting in line at Best Buy's on-site coffee place, "in e-mails, and during drive-by's at friends' desks, employees in other parts of the company started hearing.A curious culture of haves and have-nots emerged on the Best Buy campus, with those in ROWE sporting special stickers on their laptops as though they were part of some cabal" (Smashing the Clock, 2006, Business Week).

Empower others to act on the vision

Because of the cutthroat environment at Best Buy, many people were afraid to take the ROWE option. But its supporters, including the initiators of change, adopted ROWE in their own behavior, including 'skipping out' to go to children's soccer meets, and telecommuting when it was feasible. This set a strong example to hard-working employees that such behavior was acceptable -- so long as everyone got their work accomplished.

Plan for and celebrate short-term 'wins'

Metrics proving the success of ROWE immediately demonstrated to skeptics that it was successful. ROWE managers would measure how many orders per hour a team was processing. A manager found that not "only was his team's productivity up, but engagement scores, or measuring job satisfaction and retention, were the highest in the dot-com division's history" (Smashing the Clock, 2006, Business Week).

Consolidate improvements and sustain the momentum for change