Thanks to the fact I am on hiatus from school for a month I decided to pick up a book that has been on my reading list for a while:
A Sense of Urgency by John Kotter. (Kotter is one of the leading experts on Change and Leadership today.) Since we believe having a sense of urgency is imperative in the U-Turn process I am excited to read what Kotter has to say. Over the next stretch of time I'm going to blog about what I learn throughout the book. If you want to read along, you can get your own copy by
Clicking HERE.
Insights from the first chapter:
1. A sufficient number of people in the organization have to have the sense of urgency.
2. Strong Teams that are committed to guide an ambitious change are quickly formed around critical issues.
3. Those teams strive to find smart visions and strategies for dealing with key issues.
4. Teams relentlessly communicate those visions to relevant people in order to continue to get buy-in.
5. Remove barriers from teams so that they can make the vision a reality.
6. Short-term wins achieved by the teams will silence critics and disarm cynics.
7. Never let up until the vision is a reality.
8. Make the changes stick by institutionalizing it into the structure, systems, and most of all, culture.
Can't wait to see what is in Chapter 2!
Jason