John Kotter
Professor at the Harvard Business School and author, who is regarded as an authority on leadership and change.
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No vision issue today is bigger than the question of efficiency versus some combination of innovation and customer service.
Never underestimate the power of a good story.
Never underestimate the power of the mind to disempower.
A culture truly changes only when a new way of operating has been shown to succeed over some minimum period of time.
Without conviction that you can make change happen, you will not act, even if you see the vision. Your feelings will hold you back.
We see, we feel, we change.
We keep a change in place by helping to create a new, supportive, and sufficiently strong organizational culture.
Analytical tools have their limitations in a turbulent world. These tools work best when parameters are known, assumptions are minimal, and the future is not fuzzy.
Budgeting is a math exercise, number crunching. Planning is a logical, linear process. Strategizing requires a great deal of information about customers and competitors, along with conceptual skills. Visioning uses a very different part of the brain than budgeting. As the name implies, it involves trying to see possible futures. It inevitably has both a creative and emotional component (e.g., “How do we feel about the options?”). When you use “orthodox planning” to create a vision, frustration and failure are inevitable.
Changing behavior is less a matter of giving people analysis to influence their thoughts than helping them to see a truth to influence their feelings.
Motivation is not a thinking word; it’s a feeling word.
Great vision communication usually means heartfelt messages are coming from real human beings.
Valued achievements connect to people at a deeper level—and a deeper level can change behavior that is generally very difficult to change.
Good communication is not just data transfer. You need to show people something that addresses their anxieties, that accepts their anger, that is credible in a very gut-level sense, and that evokes faith in the vision.
One of the most powerful forms of information is feedback on our own actions.
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