|
Heart of Change, The: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations: Real Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations | 
 enlarge | Authors: John P Kotter, Dan S Cohen
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Category: Book
List Price: £15.99
Buy New: £11.34
You Save: £4.65 (29%)
New (30) Used (10) from £10.00
Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 6084
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 190
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 1578512549
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.406
EAN: 9781578512546
ASIN: 1578512549
Publication Date: July 1, 2002
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
| |
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
The Heart of Change is John Kotter's follow-up to his enormously popular first book, Leading Change, in which he outlined a framework for implementing change that sidesteps many of the pitfalls common to organisations looking to turn themselves around. The essence of Kotter's message is this: the reason so many change initiatives fail is because they rely too much on "data gathering, analysis, report writing, and presentations" instead of a more creative approach aimed at grabbing the "feelings that motivate useful action". In The Heart of Change, Kotter, with the help of Dan Cohen, a partner at Deloitte Consulting, shows how his eight-step approach has worked at over 100 organisations. And in just about each case, change happened because the players were lead to "see" and "feel" the change. In one example, a sales representative underscores a sense of urgency to change a manufacturing process by showing a videotape interview of an unhappy customer; in another example, a purchasing manager makes his point to senior management about corporate waste by displaying on the company's boardroom table the 424 different kinds of gloves that the company had procured through different vendors at vastly different prices. Well written and loaded with real-life examples and practical advice The Heart of Change towers over other change management titles. Managers and employees at organisations both big and small will find much to draw from. --Harry C Edwards
|
| Customer Reviews:
An examination of "the centrality of emotion" when leading change November 9, 2007
Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book first published in 2002 and I recently re-read it, curious to know how well John Kotter's core concepts have held up since then. My conclusion? Very well indeed. The Heart of Change is in several respects a sequel to Kotter's previously published classic, Leading Change, in which he observes that "Over the past decade, I have watched more than a hundred companies try to remake themselves into significantly better competitors...Their efforts have gone under many banners: total quality management, reengineering, right-sizing, restructuring, cultural change, and turnaround. But in almost every case the basic goal has been the same: to make fundamental changes in how business is conducted in order to help cope with a new, more challenging market environment. A few of these corporate change efforts have been very successful. A few have been utter failures. Most fall somewhere in between, with a distinct tilt toward the lower end of the scale. The lessons that can be drawn are interesting and will probably be relevant to even more organizations in the increasingly competitive business environment of the coming decade."
Whereas in Leading Change Kotter examines the eight steps people tend to follow to produce new ways of operating, in this volume he and Dan Cohen examine "the core problem people face in all of those steps, and how to successfully deal with the problem." And the central issue is never strategy, structure, culture, or systems. "All these elements, and others, are important. But the core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people, and behavior change happens in highly successful situations mostly by speaking to people's feelings." (Those who do that effectively have what Daniel Goleman characterizes as "emotional intelligence.") Kotter and Cohen structure this book around the eight steps "because that is how people experience the process. There is a flow in a successful change effort, and the chapters follow that flow."
They duly acknowledge the importance of clear thinking to large-scale change when selecting a strategy, locating information and then determining what to do with it, selecting possibilities for short-term achievements (i.e. picking "low-hanging fruit"), and formulating periodic progress reports. That said, I agree with Kotter and Cohen that effective leaders are sensitive to the emotions that undermine change (e.g. false pride, pessimism, cynicism, insecurity, and fear of the unknown), and they find ways to reduce those feelings.
Effective leaders are also sensitive to the emotions that facilitate change (e.g. faith, trust, optimism, reality-based pride, enthusiasm), and they find ways to nourish and enhance those feelings. Most important of all, effective leaders master the "See-Feel-Change" approach: They help others to recognize a problem or a solution to a problem, then help them to visualize it as concretely as possible, anchored in human terms, so that they will be emotionally committed to the given change initiatives. Kotter and Cohen devote a separate chapter to each of the eight steps, explaining with a series of real-life stories how various people changed their organizations and how others can change theirs. John Kotter and Dan Cohen understand, of course, that change initiatives inevitably encounter resistance. However, they have demonstrated in their book that almost anyone can help give direction to, or energize, at least a part of one the eight steps. "We need more of these people, and there is no reason we cannot have more. We need more people doing what they already do, but better - and there is no reason why that also is not possible." I agree.
Change my Heart, Oh God... October 19, 2007
Andrew Moules (Albania)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The sequel to Leading Change. I highly recommend this book. It gives real-life examples of companies and managers who acted on the eight steps of anchoring change in their culture. This summary will give you a good overview and stretch you to try some creative ways to help drive home your vision with your teams.
A Must-Read! June 17, 2005
Rolf Dobelli (Luzern Switzerland)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
By interviewing 400 individuals from 130 businesses to get their change sagas, authors John P. Kotter and Dan S. Cohen further anchor the fresh approach to organizational change that Kotter presented in 'Leading Change' (1996). Their main insight: organizations change when their people change. And, people change for emotional reasons. Some readers may think that the emphasis on feelings is "soft" or even "distracting," but the authors warn against relying on spreadsheets or reports to promote transformation. They insist that the best way to engage the emotions is not to "tell" but to "show" - in videos, displays or even office design. The visual sense, they point out, processes enormous amounts of complex information instantly. At the end of each chapter, the authors include useful, modestly titled, "Exercises That Might Help." With appreciation for that level of detail, we recommend this illuminating book. Kotter has presented his eight-step change model before, but this practical, compact work demonstrates - with plainspoken stories of real-life managers and companies - how it functions. Thus the form of the book - "showing" - exactly replicates its main point.
 A good sequel to Leading Change October 8, 2002
Dr. P. C. Burr (Hove, Ascot and Newcastle)
29 out of 29 found this review helpful
The excellent Leading Change was the "how to" book. Kotter's sequel, The Heart of Change, is the "how did" version; filled with case studies of each step of the way.Kotter exudes that rational business cases usually only provoke incremental change and that's what most organisations do. He describes the need for attention grabbing stimuli,to the 3 senses: Seeing,Hearing and Feeling, to provoke quantum change. Step 1, Increase Urgency, alone is worth the price of the book. Harrison Owen in his recent book, The Power of Spirit - How Organisations Transform, describes the importance of stories (and myths) to shaping corporate culture. Kotter's book is filled with such stories of defining moments. I've given Heart of Change 4 stars because I think the net value of the book is incremental to its predecessor, Leading Change.
|
|
|
www.pcprotech.co.uk | |
