Premature Champagne Opening is a Downfall for Implementing Change

The end of change occurs the moment a company secures itself against a return to the old ways, claims John P. Kotter in his book ‘Leading Change’. Old concepts should be viewed as living entities that must eventually die. This is supported by the example of a manager who delivered a eulogy for the old practices in his company.

prepared by Vanja Figenwald
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In companies, significant changes have occurred over the past two decades due to strong macroeconomic forces, and adapting to changing conditions is always a painful process. Some of the most common mistakes organizations make include falling into excessive complacency, failing to create a sufficiently strong guiding coalition, underestimating the power of vision, poorly communicating that vision, allowing obstacles to block the vision, failing to create short-term wins, declaring premature victory, and insufficiently embedding changes into corporate culture. These mistakes are often exacerbated by the speed of movement through the competitive environment, but fortunately, they can be mitigated or avoided. The key lies in understanding why organizations resist necessary change and the importance of leadership in implementing these processes in a socially acceptable manner, claims John P. Kotter in his book ‘Leading Change’, which has just been released in Croatian translation in the Lider library. 

Risks and Opportunities

There are a number of factors that make organizational change necessary, including technological, economic, and market factors. Changes, while creating risks, also offer opportunities. Beneficial change is generally associated with a multi-step process that provides the strength and motivation needed to overcome inertia and is driven by quality leadership, not just good management. The process includes eight phases derived from the aforementioned eight mistakes: establishing a sense of urgency, creating a guiding coalition, developing a vision and strategy, communicating the altered vision, empowering broad-based action, generating short-term wins, consolidating gains and producing further change, and anchoring new approaches in the corporate culture. 

When executing these steps, it is extremely important to follow the order, although in practice many phases operate simultaneously, and an exclusively linear implementation is very likely to result in failure. Given that many factors are at play, creating a dynamic, complex, and messy environment, leadership is crucial. Good management is not enough because it is a set of processes that ensure that a complicated system of people and technology functions smoothly, while leadership is a set of processes that first creates the organization and then adapts it to changing conditions. Leadership defines the future, organizes people in that sense, and inspires them to realize it despite obstacles.

The Problem of Complacency

Kotter examines each of these phases separately in his book. Completing the first step, establishing a sense of urgency, requires a great deal of collaboration, initiative, and willingness to sacrifice. The greatest obstacles in this regard are excessive complacency and a low sense of urgency, claims Kotter. He outlines nine possible causes of complacency, which, as the author explains, occur despite very intelligent and well-meaning employees. First, companies often lack obvious crises, which makes employees inert and unaware of the need for change. Second, companies tend to cozy up in a sense of security caused by wealth. The next inevitable cause is a low criterion created by inertia, according to which the success of managers and employees is then measured.
Fourth, the organizational structure can force employees to focus on narrow functional goals of their departments, rather than on the well-being of the entire organization. This, in turn, leads to incorrect measurements of success that do not indicate the whole but rather the parts. The absence of quality external feedback is another factor directed towards a false impression of the organization’s strength and causes isolation of those who attempt to introduce external information into the organization’s thinking. The eighth is a result of human nature, which denies unwanted things, leading to the suppression of problems, and the last cause is a culture of flattery and back-patting.

Broad Support

Nine causes, nine remedies plus a strong leader, says Kotter. By the term guiding coalition, Kotter means selecting the right people, creating a sense of trust, and sharing a vision in order to create a successful team that will realize the change. The leader alone is not enough; a quality team is also needed. In selecting the right team, it is necessary to answer four questions: are there people in the team with enough influence and power, does the team have sufficient levels and diversity of expertise, do the members have credibility within the organization, and does the team have enough legitimate and respected leaders. Vision is the central element of any great leadership and is crucial for breaking the status quo, so it is extremely important to carefully establish that vision and then effectively communicate it to the rest of the organization, using simplicity, metaphors, various forums, repetition, leading by example, explaining possible inconsistencies, and two-way communication. For change to have any chance of success, it must be widely accepted and have broad support among all employees. Once the vision is well communicated, it is important to enable those at lower levels to participate in removing barriers to change, which is the essence of the phase that Kotter calls empowering employees for broad-based action. Short-term wins will also have an effect on the morale of a broader part of the organization, but it should be noted that the desired result will only be achieved if they are visible to everyone, unambiguous, and closely linked to the overall concept of change. The goal is to achieve momentum within the organization.

Increase Intensity

Kotter considers declaring premature victory to be one of the main problems in implementing change. The logic is clear; opening champagne before the job is truly finished has a counterproductive effect on employees’ willingness to persevere in the process to the end and brings things back to the beginning, that is, to a false sense of security and success. For this reason, one should not overdo the promotion of short-term wins or declare an end before it is certain. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce additional changes and further increase their intensity, bring in more help, maintain a strong focus from senior management on the purpose of the change, decentralize projects, and finally, eliminate unnecessary dependencies within the company. The desired and anticipated end occurs the moment the organization secures itself against a return to the old ways, for which it is necessary to anchor the achieved changes in corporate culture, so that success does not depend on just one or a group of individuals who initiated and implemented it. People change, so it is important to ensure that the new concept is an integral part of the overall culture of the organization. This culture is not easy to change because people are selective and well indoctrinated, as culture is shaped by the behavior of hundreds or thousands of people and because all of this happens unintentionally, making it difficult to question or discuss existing habits. Kotter advises viewing old concepts as living entities that must eventually die, and he supports this with the example of a manager who delivered a eulogy for the old practices in his company. No matter how difficult cultural change may be, it is important that it occurs at the end of this exhausting and challenging process because going in reverse can put the entire organization in great danger. Keeping this in mind, Kotter warns of several things. The culture of change comes last, not first, it depends on results, requires a lot of conversation, may involve changing employees, and makes decisions about the future crucial.