Building Change Leaders for A Fast-Moving World

John Kotter in his most recent book, Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility For A Faster-Moving World, Harvard Business Review Press, 2014, writes “The world is now changing at a rate at which the basic systems, structures, and cultures built over the past century cannot keep up with the demands being placed on them. Incremental adjustments to how you manage and strategize, no matter how clever, are not up to the job.” 

As he continues, organizations need to accelerate innovation, productivity improvement, integration of acquisitions or global operations, any sort of key strategic change, cultural change and profitable growth. However, he notes that most are stalled by a limited number of change leaders, silo parochialism, rules and procedures, pressures to make quarterly numbers, and complacency or insufficient buy-in.

“Management is not leadership,” explains John Kotter. “Management is a set of well-known processes that help organizations produce reliable, efficient, and predictable results.... Leadership is about setting direction. It’s about creating a vision, empowering and inspiring people to want to achieve the vision, and enabling them to do so with energy and speed through an effective strategy. In its most basic sense, leadership is about mobilizing a group of people to jump into a better future.”

With the current and emerging challenges facing all companies during the next 5 - 6 years, it is vital that we expand the number of change leaders who can set direction, empower people and mobilize them to move forward toward that vision in an efficient and effective manner. The rate and pace of change will not slow down. Therefore, we need to speed up the development of key people. 

One effective way to do this is to enroll yourself and your key people in the 2015 From Vision to Action Leadership Training. Through a challenging, interactive curriculum which blends lectures, selected readings, small and large group discussions, and how to skill-building exercises, participants in this four part leadership training gain critical knowledge and skills which improve their ability to be better change leaders.  

For more information on how to register for the 2015 From Vision to Action Leadership Training, please click on the following link: http://www.chartyourpath.com/VTA-Leadership-Training.html 

Bold leadership and effective strategy will be key to success between now and 2020. Learning to be a better change leader is the first step in this journey.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257