"Heart of Change" - John Kotter

Hi I'm rosa Pancetta and I will talk to you

about chapter three and four from the book assignment,

the Heart of Change

in chapter three,

uh the author describes um

how to get the vision right.

Um so to get the vision right,

you need to ask

yourself a few questions.

Um so those questions are and be prepared

to answer those questions according to um Qatar,

um why change is necessary,

what is going to be new in the organization,

why should we keep

and what should we discard and what is the best plan to make um

the vision a reality?

So

um in order to do that,

he mentions that um

successful organizations are going to use the following four elements that

help you guide those steps to get the right vision.

Um First

the budget

um which deals with the financial part of the plan that you are about to implement

the plan, Those will be the steps that um you need to follow to implement a strategy

and the strategy is obviously how to achieve that vision

and the visions are what the end looks like.

Um He also talks about how um

vision is not something that started

The war. Vision was not uh started until the late 70's

and it's something that companies still struggle with.

Um

the key for success

uh to get the right vision is um

to keep in mind that all of the steps mentioned before are not going

to be uh done or created by a single person or a single team.

Um the leadership is gonna be the one that creates

create that vision

um and the strategies and managing management team will be the

one that plans and budgets in order to get that vision.

So an effective vision will be the one um

where some type of change is imaginable

desire by all

feasible

and flexible

and a compelling vision can appeal to the

heart to motivate anyone according to Qatar.

Um

the key, the key to success um in any kind of vision

as he mentions in the book is um speed

since um all of us get accustomed to our ways of doing things,

the old ways and whenever there is change that might be difficult to to accept. Um

and to keep in mind that

everything in our everyday lives,

it's going to constantly be changing and we need to adjust

that vision accordingly.

So he says that the pace of external change is only going to increase,

which means that the internal change has to accelerate also.

Um

according to Qatar, um what works

um

has to be something that we can imagine.

So he uses

In Chapter three, he uses four stories

Of three different companies or four different companies.

And in the first one, um he is describing what happens in a company

that deals with

um planning Well,

the title of the story is planning pictures of the future

and he talks about how a company that distributes energy um

in um Britain

is deciding whether they should stick with that or should they expand um

nationally or globally or whether they should also include

or their um

other services.

Um

And so they are all the leadership team is is trying

to figure what would be the best way to go.

So they all come up with a plan or a picture that they had in their minds in order to um

device device division that um will allow them to to serve um even better to um

provide a better service within what they already did and expand what they

already did by um uh providing service not only with energy but maybe with

electricity um

and um

internet

um and that sort of thing.

Another example in that um so that was what works imagining what

the possible future will be

and then

he also talks about

um clarity of those visions

um to make sure that you sit sit down

with your team to analyze what are the objectives,

what do they want to accomplish and how do they want to modify it?

Another step that works is the commitment to service. And in the story.

And the first story,

um they were trying to figure how can they provide a better service to um

two older clients

and how to expand their company.

Um Another

idea of what things will work uh in developing or creating the vision right,

is uh coming up with bold strategies.

So he describes a

um a story, he talks about a story uh, that he named the plane will not move.

And this is one of my favorite stories um, in the story,

they described how these airplanes were made

and where they were um constructed.

So they were having issues with the parts.

So what they will do instead of waiting for the part to arrive,

they will move the plane to get going with

whatever other kind of work they needed to do.

Uh, the new,

the new leader of the team with the new manager of the new ceo came up and said no,

we're not going to do that.

The plane will not move

until those parts arrive. It doesn't make sense that we move the plane

and they have to come back to

to disassemble and put the part that is missing.

And so everybody was surprised about the decision,

but it turns out that that made everyone uh,

started uh making phone calls so that all the parts now we're arriving

on time and instead of moving the plane before those parts arrived,

they waited.

And in fact all all of that worked really well.

So that was bold strategies. Um,

another um, another idea that he mentions his speed

and with this one, um, there is a story to that he uses in the book,

um, the body in the living room

and in this story, he talks about how um,

you get used to things and how things are done

and in this case,

there was something that he mentioned in that story that caught my eye?

And it was an example of someone buying a home

and using all money and savings to purchase this expensive home,

but it was an old house that this person was buying.

So the realtor mentioned,

you should get anything that needs to be fixed

within six months and after the six months,

if you have not changed or fixed, what needed to be done, you are not going to fix it.

And um, the buyer was surprised and said, well,

I have you sold the money that I needed to, um, there's no more money available,

but it turns out that it is the realtor was right.

He,

he figure in the end,

he sells the home that he purchased after a few years and he notes that

the realtor was right because things that were not fixed within those six months,

um,

they never got fixed.

Um, so that was interesting.

So, um, what doesn't work in getting the vision right

is um,

something that carter mentions here

is the assumption of plants and budgets alone. So you have to take into account

other parts of how the company or institution works.

Um, not just uh, taking into account budgets.

Um, what doesn't work also, he mentions is if you have your visions that are only

financially based

or visions of reducing costs as they produce anxiety on the people that work.

Um, QasR mentions how people get anxious thinking.

Okay, well they're they're reducing costs um

Now what's going to happen with my job? Am I going to be um

losing my job because theyre reducing costs

and that is not good for the

company because people working under anxiety and pressure

um obviously are not going to do well.

And then another one is just giving reasons of why new strategies are needed.

So if you're just giving reasons to people why those strategies are needed,

without actually getting the people in their teens in different teams involved

to actually see what the future will be

with the modifications with the vision given,

then um

things will not work.

So that is chapter Chapter three.

"Heart of Change" - John Kotter

Chapters

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