The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations

A good reference for leadership development with convincing examples. The principles summarized in the book are applicable to both profitable and nonprofit organizations.

The book is a great follow-up to Kotter's best selling book, Leading Change. He emphasizes the behavior changes required to make each of eight stages come alive in a See-Feel-Change model versus a traditional view of Analysis-Think-Change. With this latest book, The Heart of Change, the author provides powerful stories to make the point that emotion plays a more powerful role in making change than most of us have been taught or know how to apply. In each chapter, suggestions are made on how to make this transition. For those are in the throes of a major change effort in their organization, this is must reading that provides a fresh view of how to insert energy back into the process of change. I highly recommend the book.

The authors' professed thesis is the following: "The core of [change] is always about changing the behavior of people." [Found in the book's Preface] After reading this all-encompassing dissertation however, the seasoned scholar may glean a slightly different message. Perhaps the authors say it best in Chapter 8 when they proclaim that: "To use all of the ideas in this chapter, and to avoid the mistakes, it is essential to understand... In a change effort, culture comes last, not first." In any event, the authors set forth a multitude of stories to support the crux of their argument. This tact falls in line with their firm belief in a "see-feel-change" process. It is clearly evident that they intended to "practice what they preached" in the book's overall design. Readers who are thoroughly invested in the creation of change for their organization will probably find this book somewhat "eye-opening." The authors' use of stories is exceptional in their dissemination of an eight-step process. Some may also find this book a bit scholarly in its mission to thoroughly pound each point home. It's probably fair to say that this book is meant to be either read in its entirety or not at all. Each of the eight steps build off of each other. Despite some seemingly lengthy segments however, the authors' larger message is worth taking in.

I like this product because it is very applicable into today workplace. I work in an organization that went through some major transformations and all the steps listed in this book were made in order for those changes to happened "successfully". The books make painfully clear that positive change takes time, and gives a step by step process on how to make those changes happen. I would recommend this book to working professionals. I recommend this book to college students as well; however, college students "may" not be able to relate to the material without experience.

I did not read the original but read this for an Master's Organizational Change class. This book is amazing. Very well written with practical stories that reinforce the 8 step change process and why most change initiatives don't work. Service oriented change versus metric driven change is the real prize. If you have anything to do with change management this is a must read. For the price this book has trumped the $100 textbook on Organizational Change I also had to read. Read it, pass it on, and start changing the right way.

The Heart of Change is Kotter's follow-up book from his best know work "Leading Change". The book follows the 8 step change model that was introduced in Leading Change and for each of these steps it gives some additional advise and a bunch of real-life stories from other people who contributed a small story to the book. The book has 10 chapters, which are an introduction chapter, a conclusion and the rest are chapter numbers equal with the stages in Kotter's change model. So, the eight chapters are: 1) Increase Urgency 2) Build the Guiding Team 3) Get the Vision Right 4) Communicate for Buy-in 5) Empower Action 6) Create Short-Term Wins 7) Don't Let Up 8) Make Change Stick In the introduction, Kotter introduces the See, Feel, Change steps, which suggest you need to see something physical causing a feeling in order to change behavior. Changing behavior just based on data and logic often doesn't have the same effect than changing behavior based on feeling. The conclusions just summarizes the book. Each of the steps consist of a short summary of the steps, some stories from other people and a brief analysis of the story and some tips that you can take into account when doing that step. So, the book provides additional advise over the 8-steps introduced in Leading Change. An example of a story is the story about a salesman putting gloves on the table to show how much varieties they purchase in the organization (obvious one of the authors favorite stories as it is referred to many times). I didn't find the book incredibly special. I wasn't a big fan of "Leading Change" and the 8-step change model feels very strongly based on traditional organizational theories and structures (which makes sense as those are the most common ones). It does suggest large-scale change efforts, something I would myself not promote. Anyways, if you want to get additional insight in Kotter's 8-step change model, then this book is for you. If you were looking for something new, then this book is probably not the one you want to pick up. Average.

I had to get this for a class, which is never fun. It was an easy read, however, and the stories keep it entertaining. I've taken org change classes before so nothing was all that ground breaking, but it is a good foundational book that is written in a way that will keep the reader's attention. There are many, very short, stories that put ideas into perspective.

In this book Kotter explains how people change less because they are given analysis and facts about why change is needed and more because we show them a truth that influences their feelings. This concept is not adopted by all those writing on change management. Yet it is a concept that does fit with my experience. Unless the facts, figures, and general information presented by those wanting to effect change is compelling enough to generate the feelings that change is a requirement, then change will not happen. Kotter puts it this way: See, Feel, Change. So the information and analysis must be geared toward the "seeing," and the "feeling" in order to prompt people to change. If we do not actively pursue the task of driving necessary change, change management becomes an oxymoron - change forced upon us becomes chaos and we do not manage the change, it manages us. One of the things I enjoyed most about reading this book was the clear and logical layout with the interesting web-page navigation graphics. Also the case studies from "real life" gave practical examples of what successful change might look like in our companies. His eight steps to successful change are: 1. Increase Urgency, 2. Build the Guiding Team, 3. Get the Vision Right, 4. Communicate for Buy-In, 5. Empower Action, 6. Create Short-Term wins, 7. Don't let up, 8. Make Change Stick. All of this helps in building a practice of Shaping the Corporate Culture, which is, of course, near and dear to our hearts at dbkAssociates. Many of the insights in this book will be of practical use to us and to our clients.

Great book. Practical advise.

I read John Kotter's book - "Our Iceberg is Melting". It was an absolutely fantastic read that made me search for more books by Kotter and I ordered this book. Kotter's expertise on change management and the art of storytelling are unparalled. Such an engaging book that so well draws our the commonly overlooked principles of change management in organizational crevises, this book provides very valuable and compelling insights to drawn on and learn. I found this book immensely compelling and stimulating to an extent that I implemented some of the principles and finished authoring my first book - "Essentials of Agile Transformation", where I have officially acknowledged Kotter's writings and advices.

Sechs Jahre nach dem wegweisenden 'Leading Change' schiebt John P. Kotter unter Mitarbeit von Dan S. Cohen das entsprechende Praxishandbuch hinterher: 'The Heart of Change: Real-Life stories how people change their organizations' beschreibt die erfolgreiche Durchführung von Veränderungsprozessen in Unternehmen an Hand seines achtstufigen Prozesses. Das Buch ist entsprechend diesen Stufen in einzelne Kapitel gegliedert. Im Einzelnen: 1. Veränderungsdruck aufbauen 2. Führungskoalition aufbauen 3. Vision und Strategie des Wandels entwickeln 4. Vision des Wandels kommunizieren 5. Empowerment auf breiter Basis herstellen 6. Kurzfristige Ziele ins Auge fassen 7. Erfolge konsolidieren und weitere Veränderungen ableiten 8. Neue Ansätze in der Kultur verankern Die acht Stufen werden in der Einleitung kurz abgehandelt, der Fokus dieses Buches liegt eindeutig auf ihrer praktischen Anwendung. Für diejenigen Leser, die aus Zeitgründen oder Gewohnheit die Einleitung überspringen, beginnt jedes Kapitel mit einer wirklich knappen Wiederholung der jeweiligen Stufe. Es folgen prägnante Fallbeispiele, die sich ausschließlich auf die wichtigen Aspekte der Stufe konzentrieren. Die Fallbeispiele übersteigen selten zwei Buchseiten und werden direkt im Anschluss vor dem theoretischen Hintergrund analysiert. Die Analyse ist ebenso knapp wie das Beispiel und lenkt die Aufmerksamkeit daher auf das, was Change Manager für einen erfolgreichen Veränderungsprozess beachten müssen. Beispiele und Theorie sind grafisch von einander abgetrennt, was dem Leser eine leichte Orientierung ermöglicht. Veränderungsmanager, die Change gerade am eigenen Leib bzw. in der eigenen Firma verspüren, finden vielfältige Übungen: lösungsorientierte Fragenkataloge zur ersten Stufe 'Veränderungsdruck aufbauen' liefern eine gute Richtlinie zur Überprüfung, ob der Veränderungsdruck bereits auf allen Ebenen sichtbar ist und was getan werden kann, um ihn an allen wichtigen Stellen präsent zu machen. Ebenso werden andere Methoden praxisnah vorgestellt, um den Status Quo des eigenen Change Prozesses beurteilen zu können. Das Ende jeden Kapitels bilden prägnant zusammengefasst die Do's und Don'ts für erfolgreiches Change Management, entwickelt aus den Faziten der vorgestellten Fälle. Die gelungene Mischung aus Theorie, praktischer Anwendung und wertvollen Umsetzungstipps macht dieses Buch zu einer spannenden, kurzweiligen und informativen Lektüre: Der eigene Blickwinkel wird geweitet, Offenheit und Mut zu individuellen Lösungen werden geschaffen. Die kurzen Beispiele bieten einen schnellen Überblick über die wichtigen Aspekte jeder Stufe und erlauben dem Leser, die Quintessenz mit der Lektüre weniger Zeilen aufzunehmen. Durch die Vielzahl an Beispielen findet man leicht Parallelen zu eigenen Veränderungsprozessen und Inspiration fürs eigene Vorgehen. Es eignet sich gleichermaßen für Change Manager und für jeden Leser, der interessante Einblicke in die sich schnell drehende Unternehmenswelt sucht. Bleibt noch anzumerken, dass das Buch nur in englischer Sprache erhältlich ist und es daher einem einigermaßen sicheren Umgang mit derer bedarf.

Brilliant book that goes hand in hand with the audiobook I purchased through audible

Genial... Muy recomendable en general, pero si estas interesado en gestion del cambio, es un esencial.