Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model

Table of Contents

  1. Definition
  2. Why it matters for marketing
  3. How it works
    1. The 2014 update: eight accelerators
  4. How to apply the model
  5. Common use cases
  6. Comparison with similar models
  7. Best practices
  8. Criticisms and limitations
  9. Future trends
  10. Frequently asked questions
  11. Related terms
  12. Sources

Definition

Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model is a framework for leading large-scale organizational change. It lays out eight steps that run from building a sense of urgency to embedding new practices in company culture. John P. Kotter, then a professor at Harvard Business School, introduced it in a 1995 Harvard Business Review article, “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail,” and expanded it in his 1996 book Leading Change.

The model came out of observation. Kotter had spent about ten years studying more than 100 companies that attempted major transformations, and the article describes the eight errors he saw most often. The eight steps are the inverse of those errors.

In their original 1995 wording, the steps are:

  1. Establish a sense of urgency
  2. Form a powerful guiding coalition
  3. Create a vision
  4. Communicate the vision
  5. Empower others to act on the vision
  6. Plan for and create short-term wins
  7. Consolidate improvements and produce still more change
  8. Institutionalize new approaches

Kotter revised the wording in his 2014 book Accelerate, where the steps are called “accelerators.” Both versions are in common use, and the later one is covered below.

See also: ADKAR, Kübler-Ross Change Curve, Organizational Change Management (OCM), McKinsey 7S Framework

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Why it matters for marketing

Marketing departments go through more structural change than most functions. A new marketing automation platform, a move from campaign teams to agile pods, the introduction of generative AI into content production: each one asks people to work differently, and each one can stall for reasons that have nothing to do with the technology.

Kotter’s model addresses that human side. It treats change as a leadership problem. A marketing operations lead rolling out a new work management system can use the eight steps to check what’s been skipped. Has anyone explained why the old process has to go? Is there a group of respected people from brand, demand gen and analytics backing the change, or only the ops team? Has a first result been shown to the wider department?

The model is also widely taught in MBA and executive programs. Marketing leaders presenting a transformation plan to a CEO or board will often find the audience already knows the vocabulary.

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How it works

Kotter’s central claim is that successful change goes through a series of phases, and that skipping one creates only an appearance of speed. Each step exists because of a specific failure he observed.

StepWhat it involvesThe error it prevents
1. UrgencyShowing why change is needed now, using market and competitive factsComplacency. Kotter wrote that well over 50% of the companies he watched failed at this first phase
2. Guiding coalitionAssembling a group with enough power and credibility to lead the effortRelying on a single sponsor or a low-status project team
3. VisionCreating a clear picture of the future and a strategy for reaching itA pile of plans and programs with no direction
4. CommunicationUsing every available channel to share the vision, and modeling the new behaviorUnder-communicating, which Kotter put at a factor of ten
5. EmpowermentRemoving obstacles and changing systems or structures that undermine the visionLeaving blockers in place, including managers who resist
6. Short-term winsPlanning visible improvements and recognizing the people responsibleLosing momentum when results are slow to appear
7. ConsolidationUsing credibility from early wins to change more systems and policiesDeclaring victory too soon
8. InstitutionalizationConnecting new behaviors to results and building them into succession and cultureChanges that fade once pressure is removed
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The 2014 update: eight accelerators

In Accelerate, Kotter reworded the steps and changed how they’re meant to operate.

1995–1996 wording2014 wording
Establish a sense of urgencyCreate a sense of urgency
Form a powerful guiding coalitionBuild a guiding coalition
Create a visionForm a strategic vision
Communicate the visionEnlist a volunteer army
Empower others to act on the visionEnable action by removing barriers
Plan for and create short-term winsGenerate short-term wins
Consolidate improvements and produce still more changeSustain acceleration
Institutionalize new approachesInstitute change

Three differences matter. The original steps were presented as a sequence, while the accelerators are meant to run concurrently and continuously. The original relied on a small, powerful core group, and the update calls for a large “volunteer army” drawn from across the organization. And the update introduces a “dual operating system,” in which a flexible network handles change alongside the traditional hierarchy that runs daily operations.

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How to apply the model

The model has no formula. It’s applied as a sequence of leadership actions, or in the updated version as a set of activities kept running in parallel. An illustrative application for a marketing department adopting an AI-assisted content workflow:

  1. Urgency. Share data on content cycle times and how many requests the team currently turns away.
  2. Guiding coalition. Recruit a content director, a brand lead, a legal reviewer and two well-regarded writers.
  3. Vision. State the goal in plain terms, such as “first drafts in hours, with every piece reviewed by a human editor before it ships.”
  4. Communication. Present at the department meeting, demo the workflow, and repeat the message in team channels and one-on-ones.
  5. Remove barriers. Get legal sign-off on data use, set up tool access and adjust briefs so they work with the new process.
  6. Short-term wins. Pilot with one product line and report the result within 60 days.
  7. Sustain. Extend to other content types and update templates and job descriptions.
  8. Institute. Add the workflow to onboarding and to performance expectations.
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Common use cases

Martech platform rollouts. Structuring adoption of a new CRM, CDP or work management tool beyond the technical implementation.

AI adoption. Building support for AI tools among staff who are skeptical or worried about their roles.

Reorganizations. Moving from channel-based teams to agile or pod structures.

Agency and operating model changes. In-housing work that used to sit with agencies, or the reverse.

Brand and culture programs. Rebrands or customer-centricity initiatives that depend on behavior change across the company.

Diagnosing a stalled initiative. Using the eight errors as a checklist to find what was missed.

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Comparison with similar models

ModelFocusStructureBest suited to
Kotter’s 8-Step Change ModelWhat leaders do to drive organization-wide changeEight steps or acceleratorsLarge transformations that need broad buy-in
ADKARWhat each individual needs in order to changeFive outcomes: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, ReinforcementTracking individual adoption and targeting training
Lewin’s Change ModelThe overall arc of changeThree stages: Unfreeze, Change, RefreezeA simple high-level description of change
Kübler-Ross Change CurveEmotional responses to changeStages of reaction over timeAnticipating and responding to resistance
McKinsey 7S FrameworkOrganizational alignmentSeven interdependent elementsDiagnosing what has to change
PDCA CycleContinuous process improvementFour repeating phasesIncremental, iterative improvements

Kotter and ADKAR are the two most often compared. They work at different levels. Kotter’s model describes what leadership does across the organization. ADKAR describes what has to be true for one person to adopt a change. Many practitioners use both, with Kotter for the overall plan and ADKAR to check individual progress.

The 7S Framework answers a different question again. It helps identify what needs to change, and Kotter’s model covers how to lead the change once that’s known.

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Best practices

Ground urgency in facts. Kotter’s first step starts with examining the competitive situation and market position. Customer data and competitor moves are more persuasive than a general appeal.

Build the coalition beyond the org chart. Include people with informal influence. A coalition made up only of the project team has little reach.

Keep the vision short. Kotter’s rule of thumb is that a vision should be explainable in about five minutes and get a reaction that shows understanding and interest.

Communicate far more than feels necessary. A single announcement and a slide deck aren’t enough. Leaders’ behavior counts as communication too.

Plan the short-term wins. Kotter’s wording is “plan for and create.” Pick a pilot where a visible result is achievable within months.

Don’t declare victory early. Use early wins to take on larger problems.

Tie changes to results. People need to be shown how the new approach improved performance, or they’ll draw their own conclusions.

Pair it with an individual-level model. The eight steps don’t measure whether a given employee has the knowledge and ability to work in the new way.

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Criticisms and limitations

Linearity. The original model presents change as a fixed sequence. Critics note that real change efforts overlap and loop back. Kotter’s 2014 update responds to this directly.

Top-down orientation. The original steps depend on senior leaders and a small core group. The “volunteer army” in the later version is a response to that too.

Limited detail on execution. The model says what needs to happen at each step but offers few tools for doing it.

Evidence base. The 1995 article draws on Kotter’s own observation of companies and doesn’t present a formal quantitative study.

Episodic framing. The original model assumes a discrete change with a beginning and an end. Organizations facing continuous change may find that framing less useful.

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Continuous change as the default. With AI tools and martech platforms updating constantly, change is less often a single project. The concurrent, always-running approach from Accelerate fits that situation better than the 1995 sequence.

Application to AI adoption. Organizations are using the model to structure AI rollouts, where fear about job impact makes urgency, communication and early wins especially relevant.

Hybrid approaches. Teams commonly combine Kotter’s steps with agile methods and with ADKAR. The combination covers leadership, iteration and individual adoption.

Network-based change teams. The dual operating system idea lines up with the growth of cross-functional groups such as AI councils and centers of excellence that sit outside the formal hierarchy.

Shorter cycles for early wins. Digital tools make it possible to show a pilot result in weeks. That compresses step six considerably compared with the multi-year transformations Kotter studied.

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Frequently asked questions

What are Kotter’s 8 steps? In the original wording: establish a sense of urgency, form a powerful guiding coalition, create a vision, communicate the vision, empower others to act on the vision, plan for and create short-term wins, consolidate improvements and produce still more change, and institutionalize new approaches.

Who is John Kotter? John P. Kotter was the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School and is now retired from that position. He co-founded the consulting firm Kotter International.

When was the model created? It first appeared in the March–April 1995 issue of Harvard Business Review. Kotter’s book Leading Change followed in 1996.

What changed in the updated version? The 2014 book Accelerate renamed the steps “accelerators,” reworded several of them, and said they should run concurrently instead of in sequence. It also replaced “communicate the vision” with “enlist a volunteer army” and introduced the dual operating system.

Do the steps have to be done in order? The original model says yes and warns against skipping steps. The updated version says the eight activities should run at the same time and continuously.

How is Kotter’s model different from ADKAR? Kotter’s model is about what leaders do at the organizational level. ADKAR is about the stages an individual passes through. They’re frequently used together.

How long does the process take? There’s no set timeline. Kotter’s original article stresses that major change takes a long time, often years. Smaller departmental changes can move much faster.

Which step do organizations most often get wrong? According to Kotter’s 1995 article, the first. He wrote that well over half of the companies he observed failed to establish enough urgency.

Is the model still relevant? It remains one of the most widely taught change frameworks. The updated accelerators version is the better fit for organizations dealing with continuous change.

Can a single department use it? Yes. The model was built on company-wide transformations, but the same steps apply to a department-level change such as a new marketing workflow.

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  1. ADKAR
  2. Kübler-Ross Change Curve
  3. Organizational Change Management (OCM)
  4. Change Management
  5. Change Control Board
  6. McKinsey 7S Framework
  7. PDCA Cycle (Deming Cycle)
  8. Nudge Theory
  9. Hoshin Kanri (Policy Deployment)
  10. Center of Excellence (CoE)
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Sources

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