At the 2018 NAS Summit, faculty member, Nancy Koehn, discussed leading change. Inspired by John P. Kotter’s Harvard Business Review article, “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail,” she introduced the nine planks (and their sequence) necessary for leading a successful change effort.
Plank 1: You.
Plank 2: Your coalition.
Plank 3: Momentum. Where is the urgency? What might happen if we don’t act? Creating the momentum behind the need for change.
Plank 4: Your vision. What is the next point towards which you’re steering? What is your North Star?
Plank 5: Communication. You cannot talk about planks 3 & 4 enough. You should talk about them all the time at all levels.
Plank 6: Removing obstacles. Defuse the naysayers.
Plank 7: Short-term wins. Create opportunities for credible and public short-term wins.
Plank 8: Patience. Do not declare victory too soon.
Plank 9: Operationalize. Create processes and institutions that cultivate and support change agents.
