What I'm Reading: A Sense of Urgency by John Kotter

Throughout my career I have read other books by John Kotter, most notably Leading Change, while attending the Fels Center of Government at the University of Penn while getting my MPA degree in 1994.

Kotter is a Harvard Business School professor who has written about leadership and change for years. This summer, I came across Kotter's 2006 book Our Ice Burg is Melting after reading about it in the New York Times. That book, a fable, uses the same decision making process outlined in the 1994 Leading Change book. I found Our Iceburg is Melting to be very accessible and made it plain that Kotter's 8 step methodology really had merit.

For the last three years I have been working with historic house museums that are being forced, because of the changing economy, demographic shifts and fundraising realities, to make fundamental changes. Some are failing, and others are being forced to think differently about their mission. Some are considering new uses or users for their site.

But in each group I profiled in my case studies in by 2007 book New Solution for House Museums I came across the same problem: how do you create urgency in complacent organizations?

Kotter's new book is called A Sense of Urgency, and is a perfect distillation of of this knotty problem. No change happens anywhere without someone deciding "we have to change NOW." But how do you get complacent people to change? Kotter's book answers that question and provides examples from his consulting practice.

I found this book helpful even for nonprofit organizations. Having worked with countless boards of directors who fear change because of the impact the change could have on their own perception of their status in the community, this book provided good clear answers.

My favorite part of the book was how to deal with the "No Nos," those people who actively (and passively) try to thwart change of any kind. You know who these people are--they could be lovely board members or cantankerous staff members. Any idea that involves change (particularly change that affects them) just seems to get buried, thwarted or dismissed by these people. No Nos are very effective in stamping down the new.

Kotter provides examples of techniques that work, and those that do not, so that readers can confront these naysayers immediately and repeatedly, so the change agenda does not get derailed. While this is a business book, and some of Kotter's techniques just won't work on nonprofit volunteers (for example--transfer the No No to Hong Kong), there are enough ideas that are worthy trying. Effective leaders I have had the privilege to watch over the years, instinctively know how to deal with NoNos, but for the rest of us, Kotter has worth while suggestions.

Read Our Ice burg is Melting first, and if you are intrigued, then go back to Leading Change, and then buy the new book A Sense of Urgency. That is how I read these.

I am so convinced that this change methodology works for house museums, that I have radically reworked my talks about a change methodology for house museums. I overlay the material I have already developed and discussed in my book, (such as committee formation, information needed, and role of stakeholders) on top of Kotter's 8 step change process. This longer workshop gives house museum directors and board members a clear and unvarnished view about what the change process is like for the long haul.

I did a half day workshop for the Association of Indiana Museums on August 24th on it (to rave reviews) and will again conduct a two and a half hour workshop for the Preservation North Carolina annual conference on October 7th in Greensboro NC.

Read the books.

If you want to know more about these workshops for house museums considering change, please contact me.