Organisational behaviour
Change management: Kotter’s eight-step model
Many executives struggle to implement change in their organisations, and the larger the firm, the bigger the challenge.
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Change management: Kotter’s eight-step model vs The eight phases of change (Kotter)
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Strategy
The eight phases of change (Kotter)
This is not a book on strategy implementation, let alone on the complexities of change management, but it is an inescapable fact that strategy.
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Use this when.
Use it to lead a significant organisational change, such as a new structure, technology platform or customer service model.
During strategy formulation, anticipate the change programme that implementation will require rather than treating execution as a later concern.
Extracted signals
Strengths, limits, and pitfalls.
Change management: Kotter’s eight-step model
- Make the change visible and emotionally meaningful as well as rational. Let people see a concrete problem resolved, feel the improvement and practise the specific behaviours that the new state requires.
- Before starting, define the outcome, evidence of adoption, affected groups and constraints. Use the eight steps as a causal sequence rather than a rigid calendar: later work can begin before an earlier stage is “finished,” but skipping the underlying condition creates fragility. Adapt tactics to feedback while preserving the logic.
Watch for
- Do not assume that senior leaders possess the right destination or sufficient commitment. The original model is strongest for sponsored, top down transformation; where those conditions fail, leadership renewal or a genuinely bottom up change process may be necessary.
The eight phases of change (Kotter)
- Build urgency, coalition and vision before launching a broad programme, then use visible wins to deepen—not declare victory over—the change.
- Treat the phases as a connected logic rather than a rigid waterfall. Diagnose where the organisation is weak, then build enough urgency, sponsorship and clarity before demanding widespread behaviour change. Reinforce communication with decisions, resources and examples; claims that conflict with incentives will not create buy in.
- Use complementary lenses where appropriate. Lewin’s unfreeze–change–refreeze model emphasises readiness and stabilisation, while the Kübler Ross change curve is often adapted to discuss emotional reactions—though it should not be treated as a predictable sequence for every employee.
Watch for
- No change situation follows a generic sequence perfectly. Adapt the model to context without removing its essential implementation logic.
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Application bridge
Related templates.
Change Request FormChange Request Form Purpose. Use this form to capture a proposed programme-level change before evaluation and decision. Application. Submit one form for each distinct request, assign a unique identifier and connect it with the change request log. Component teams should follow their own control process and escalate changes whose effects extend to programme strategy, benefits, scope, schedule, cost,Component CharterComponent Charter Purpose. Use this charter to formally authorise a programme component, explain how it contributes to the programme and define the component manager's authority and responsibility. A component may be a project, non-project operational work, a subprogramme or a coordinated set of projects and subprojects. Application. Prepare the charter after component initiation is approved and bContract Closeout ReportContract Closeout Report Purpose. Use this report to consolidate the evidence needed for a programme contract's formal closeout. It brings together deliverable decisions, schedule and budget results, changes, issues, risks, resource constraints, final performance-review conclusions and procurement lessons in one retrievable record. Application. Supplier performance reports and the programme team'sProgram Benefits Transition PlanProgram Benefits Transition Plan Purpose. Use this plan to move benefit-enabling outputs, responsibilities and capabilities from the programme into the environment that will use and sustain them. The receiver may be a customer, an operational unit such as product support, customer support or service management, or another programme that is operating or about to begin. Application. Transition is mo