Kotter’s 8-Step Organizational Change Model presented by Thomsen provided some interesting concepts. Specifically, reasons as to why change in an organization is not successful. Of the top ten reasons why change is not successful, four of these reasons stood out for me, as I have seen them be the demise in plan implementation in various employment venues.

• Lack of a clear-cut, well thought out plan. A plan for change must have steps, and stopping points to determine whether the plan is going in the right direction. This will help at any given point determining whether the plan is successful.
• Haphazard communication. Often haphazard communication stems from a plan that is not well thought out.
• Neglecting to reinforce change. This takes place when the plan for change has been in place for some time. Some changes toward eventual success of the plan has taken place, but the steam has worn out. The initial excitement of the change team has diminished and no follow through is implemented.
• Not investing enough resources in the change effort. This is a big one. Often change is budget driven. How can we change our model and provide care to more patients but at the least expense? How can we change the culture (outlook/attitude) of our nurses towards their work/workload at the least cost to the organization? As most changes have a behind the scenes budget stipulation, resources are not sufficient to make the plan successful.

 

The one point of the Kotter Change Model that was lacking is the proper placement of followers. The Change Model mentioned several times about using appropriate leaders but mentioned very little if anything about followers. Using followers strategically can be very beneficial in the success of a plan. This takes knowing your followers as well as what type of followers the organization has.

 

An interesting article is posted on the Harvard Business Review website. The article What Every Leader Needs to Know About Followers, (Kellerman, 2007). Kellerman states “ the modern leadership industry, now a quarter-century old, is built on the proposition that leaders matter a great deal and followers hardly at all.” Kellerman goes on to detail the importance of followers in the organizational makeup. She also defines five different types of followers:

 

• Isolates: “These followers are scarcely aware of what’s going on around them. Moreover, they do not care about their leaders, know anything about them, or respond to them in any obvious way.” These passively support the status quo and will unknowingly bring down any plan implemented.
• Bystanders: “These free riders deliberately stand aside and disengage, both from their leaders and from their groups or organizations. They may go along passively when it is in their self-interest to do so, but they are not internally motivated to engage in an active way.” According to Kellerman, these followers fly under the radar. Often found in large organizations they do their work without fuss. They can be useful because they do their work, but they are not motivated for change.
• Participants: “Regardless of whether these followers clearly support their leaders and organizations or clearly oppose them, they care enough to invest some of what they have (time or money, for example) to try to make an impact.”
• Activists: “These followers are eager, energetic, and engaged. They are heavily invested in people and processes, so they work hard either on behalf of their leaders or to undermine and even unseat them.”
• Diehards: “Diehards are prepared to down for their cause-whether it’s an individual, and idea, or both. These followers may be deeply devoted to their leaders, or they may be strongly motivated to oust their leaders by any means necessary. They exhibit an all-consuming dedication to someone or something they deem worthy.”

Clearly according to Kellerman, followers can be a benefit or a risk. If the plan is well thought out, communicated appropriately where there is a buy-in from the staff, strategically placed followers can make just as much of an impact as the leaders who develop the plan. I think Kotter’s Organizational Change Model has some good points, but overall, it is a rehash of age-old leadership models.

 

 

Kellerman, B. (2017). What every leader needs to know about followers. The Harvard Business

 Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2007/12/what-every-leader-needs-to-know-about-followers

 

Thomsen, S. (2013, February 17). Kotter’s 8 step organizational change model fc. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxtF4OXzhyI#action=share