Kotter

Read the article titled “The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change”. Next, analyze the change that was implemented by Daniel Oliveira.  Synthesize the change based on Kotter’s eight (8) steps for leading change. Determine if Oliveira followed the Kotter model. Select one (1) of the steps to assess and determine if Oliveira accomplished this step. Why was this an important step? Comment on how following the model may have made his change successful.

The changes that were implemented by Daniel Oliveria were the urgency code for both cashier and fitting room staff – everyone should stop their work and help these departments whenever a customer line had more than three customers and the immediate reallocation of personnel — to increase the visual merchandising team in order to improve the showcase and mannequins’ presentation. He also planned to change some department operations from the current system of planning and designating functions by people to hourly-based activities planning.

Oliveria’s did not follow Kotter’s model. The one step that I feel that his decision came close to is the manipulation and co-option. In this step the “covert” attempts to influence others to change and it can involve the deliberate biasing of messages.

I feel that this is the approach he used because by the time he met with the managers, he wasn’t meeting with them to get their ideas, he was meeting with them to solicit their opinions but he was meeting with them to let them about the changes he was proposing to make.

I don’t believe that the resistance to change was coming from the employees but the managers. The managers were resistant to his changes because they didn’t feel like he was experienced enough to suggest these changes because they didn’t feel like he was experienced as them, didn’t know enough about making these changes without consulting with them, and they felt like Oliveria single-handedly made the changes prior to consulting with them or getting their buy in.

Had Oliveria followed the model, the managers and employs would have been more accepting and cooperative because: they wouldn’t feel that they were blind-sided by his recommendations, they would feel like they had an opportunity to express their ideas/opinions, and they would have been more accepting because they would feel like they had a vested interest in the outcome.