John Kotter was a Harvard Business School Professional and renowned change expert. Kotter eight step model change included creating urgency, forming powerful guiding coalitions, developing a vision and stagey, communicating the vision, removing obstacles, creating short term wins, consolidating gains and anchoring change in corporate culture. This is an easy model that provides steps and instruct guidance with each step. The eight-step process focuses on preparing and building acceptability as opposed to actual change. Change in an organization is not easy and it takes a lot of work and can be time consuming.
I work in a 465 bed, 75 emergency bay, level one trauma center with 15 operating rooms in the main tower, and 10 operating room/procedure rooms in the old tower. I am not really sure why, but upper management decided to run the old towers operating room like an outpatient facility. They down sized staff and changed processes to run the hospital like a sister outpatient center. A problem with running the hospital this way is that we take care of very sick kids. Running these operating rooms like an outpatient facility has been very difficult. Staffing levels are lower and communication is difficult. The decision to run the facility this way was not even made by the hospital management staff, rather, it was by a contractor for the space, a group of physician to run the facility.
The Kotter model is practical but has not been used in my facility. The vision was not communicated. Leadership was not good. After months, we are slowly forming powerful coalitions. The staff that work in the old tower operating rooms have really been working hard as a team. We love our jobs, which is why we have stayed. A new manger is starting in a week and we hope she is more of a leader.
- (n.d.). Retrieved from [Steven Thomsen]. (2013, February 17). KOTTER’S 8 STEP ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MODEL FC. [Video File]. Retrieved May 11, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxtF4OXzhyI#action=share
That’s unfortunate that that decision was made my contractors and not hospital management. I think that automatically sets up the facility for failure. It sounds like you all work well as a team to try and adjust to this change. Its important to love your job!
I agree with Beth in that it’s unfortunate the decision on how to run the part of the facility you work in was made by contractors rather than hospital management. This type of “management”, wherein outside sources come in and “assess” how a company/organization is run and make decisions based off of the very little data gathered in a short amount of time, is often detrimental to the company/organization. Often times these outside sources don’t take into account the lifeblood of the organization — the employees — and end up making working conditions worse, which only serves to deteriorate the organization from the inside out. Hopefully your new manager will help facilitate change, and rather than “assess and diagnose” will work with employees to form a team to help implement the vision of change (as outlined in Kotter’s 8 Step Model) needed in your facility.
References:
Thomsen, S. (2013, February 17). Kotter’s 8 Step Organizational Change Model FC. (video file). Retrieved March 20, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxtF4OXzhyI#action=share