John Kotter in Leading Change cites eight reasons why transitions (planned change) in firms fail: 1) They allow too much complacency, 2) They fail to create a sufficiently powerful guiding coalition, 3) They underestimate the power of VISION, 4) They undercommunicate the VISION by a facgtor of 10 (or 100 or even 1,000), 5) They permit pbstacles to block the new vision, 6) They fail to create short-term wins, 7) They declare victory too soon (and quit trying), and, finally, 8) They neglect to anchor changes in the corporate culture.

I wonder which of these points you could point to as the main reason the last change plan you were involved with failed. Obviously planned change may require more from leadership than a simple mandate if it is to become a long-term reality. It is interesting that VISION is mentioned in two of the point cited by Kotter: underestimating the power of VISION and undercommunicating the VISION. I suppose this makes sense when one considers that it was VISION which decided the course of the change to begin with.

It amazes me what passes for leadership . . . and the significant lack thereof. Probably the best book I have read recently discussing one aspect of leadership has been Leading Change by Kotter. The concepts presented in this book are universal and if considered will assist any leader in facilitating change within the organization. Key, of course to change is the create the sense of urgency that change, although possibly not desirable, is certainly unavoidable - what can be avoided, with some effort, is negative change. For example, the economic situation may mean that a business will definitely suffer financial reversals UNLESS some change occurs. With the inevitability of change coming, all that remains is to determine which changes can bring forth positive returns instead of negative, for the largest number of stakeholders. This, of course, recognizes that not all stakeholders will benefit or even survive the change, at least in their current incarnation.