Introduction
Change management is talked about a lot, but in practice the real question is often much simpler: how do you actually lead change through people, day-to-day work, and business reality? In this article, I'll explain why John Kotter's change leadership model is still a useful framework, especially when an organization needs to move in a clear new direction. I'll first walk through the core ideas from a practical leadership perspective, and then share two of my own examples where I applied similar principles in real life: Case 1: restoring performance after a merger and Case 2: leading a controlled business unit shutdown in a difficult situation. If you are mainly interested in real-world examples, feel free to jump straight to the cases.
There is no shortage of discussion around change leadership. Strategies get updated, organizations get redesigned, and operating models get rebuilt. Still, many change efforts fail or lose momentum halfway through. Usually, the problem is not that the need for change was missed. More often, the issue is that the change is not led clearly enough, consistently enough, or close enough to everyday work.
One of the best-known frameworks in this area is John Kotter's eight-step model. Its real strength is in larger, directional change: situations where the destination is already becoming clear and the challenge is getting the organization there in practice. It is less a tool for diagnosing a situation and more a tool for execution.
From my own perspective, the value of Kotter's model is not in following eight steps mechanically. Its value is that it highlights the conditions that make change possible. People need a reason. They need direction. They need repeated communication, visible progress, and confidence that leadership understands what is happening on the ground. Without those things, change easily remains a presentation instead of becoming reality.
Change starts with making the need visible
The first step in Kotter's model is creating a sense of urgency. This matters because change does not move forward just because leadership sees the need for it. The need has to be visible and meaningful across the organization.
This is where communication matters enormously. People do not commit to a spreadsheet or to abstract concern from management. They commit when they understand why the old way no longer works and why a new direction is necessary. Good change communication is not just about sharing information. It is about creating meaning. That is why stories, examples, and clear framing can be so powerful. They make change easier to understand and remember.
I still remember how strongly Stephen Elop's "burning platform" message at Nokia stayed in people's minds. Whatever one thinks about the message itself or its consequences, it did one thing very effectively: it made the status quo feel untenable.
The same dynamic appears in everyday leadership. Whenever I have been involved in leading a business into a new direction, one of the first priorities has been making the need for change visible. If people do not understand why the old model no longer works, they will naturally defend it.
Change does not move forward alone
Kotter's second step is building a guiding coalition. In practice, this means change cannot be the project of one leader alone. It needs support from key people, managers, and trusted influencers inside the organization who can carry it into everyday behavior.
This is one of the points where many change efforts stall. Senior leadership may be aligned, but if middle management and key operational people do not truly commit, the organization will quietly continue as before. Change needs visible leadership, but it also needs people who can translate direction into action.
To me, this is also deeply connected to trust. In a period of change, people pay less attention to what is said on slides and more attention to how their immediate leaders behave, what actually gets prioritized, and what gets challenged or reinforced in practice. That is where credibility is built.
A vision has to guide action
The third step is creating a vision and strategic direction. A good vision is more than a slogan or an inspiring line about the future. It should help people understand where the organization is going, why it is going there, and what that means in practice.
I have seen many situations where an organization technically has a vision, but people cannot connect it to their own work. In that case, it does not guide anything. A useful vision helps people prioritize, make decisions, and tell whether they are moving in the right direction.
In change leadership, a vision is never fully finished from day one. It evolves during execution, becomes more concrete over time, and gains its real meaning through action. What matters most is that the direction is clear enough for people to act on it.
4) Communication matters more than most organizations admit
Kotter's fourth step is communicating the vision broadly. In reality, this means repetition, involvement, and consistency across levels of the organization.
Change communication almost always falls short at first. Not because people are not listening, but because uncertainty consumes messages very quickly. The same message needs to be repeated many times, in different ways and in different settings. Even more importantly, communication has to answer the questions people are actually asking: what is happening, why now, what does this mean for me, and what is expected of me today?
In my experience, good change communication is not about pretending to know everything in advance. Quite the opposite. Leaders need to be able to say what is still unclear. Honesty tends to build trust far more effectively than polished certainty.
Remove barriers and make progress visible
Kotter's fifth and sixth steps focus on removing obstacles and creating short-term wins. These are critical in practical leadership.
Many changes fail because people are told about the new direction, but the old structures, metrics, roles, or habits still make the old way easier. When that happens, change remains talk. A leader's job is to identify what is preventing people from acting differently and remove those barriers systematically.
At the same time, visible progress matters. Short-term wins are not just for reporting upward. They are important because they build belief across the organization. People need proof that the new direction is actually working.
This is one of Kotter's key strengths. The model recognizes that change does not live in plans alone. It lives in momentum. And momentum grows when people can see that progress is real.
Case 1: Restoring performance after a merger
One concrete example from my own work was when I took over a web commerce unit at Fonecta after a merger. The unit was in a difficult position: the team was overloaded, customers were unhappy, quality had dropped, and the billing rate had weakened significantly. Overall performance was far below the level the business needed.
This was not something that could be fixed with a single decision or a new org chart. The first step was to make the real nature of the problem visible. We went through the numbers, identified operational bottlenecks, and discussed with the team where daily execution was actually breaking down. This reflected one of Kotter's core ideas: people needed a shared understanding that this was not a collection of isolated issues, but a broader performance problem.
From there, I built a practical change program together with the team lead and managers. We clarified targets, updated project practices, strengthened weekly leadership routines, and improved follow-up. What mattered was that the change did not stay at the level of broad direction. The new way of working was actively managed in day-to-day operations.
The first clear results became visible within a few months. The billing rate improved by more than 30%, revenue grew accordingly, delivery capability improved, customer satisfaction increased, and the team's workload became more manageable. After the turnaround, the unit delivered the best results among the company's specialist units.
In this case, Kotter's ideas were especially visible in four areas: making the problem visible, building a core group to support the change, removing obstacles, and making early wins tangible. Once people could see that the new model made daily work easier and improved results, belief in the change grew quickly.
Case 2: Leading a controlled business unit shutdown in a difficult situation
Change leadership is often associated with growth, renewal, and building something new. In practice, equally strong leadership is needed when a business needs to be wound down in a controlled way.
At Fonecta, a group-level strategic shift led to a reassessment of the future of the web commerce business unit. As a result, we faced a phased shutdown. In a situation like that, the challenge is especially demanding because you need to manage customers, employees, systems, budget, and timing at the same time, while keeping operations stable in the middle of uncertainty.
I led the shutdown from start to finish. I built a phased plan that combined prioritization, budgeting, communication, customer risk management, and team support throughout the process. The key was to keep execution under control all the way to the end and make sure production remained stable even as the team size decreased over time.
In this case, Kotter's thinking showed up especially in communication, removing barriers, and maintaining consistency throughout the process. Even though this was not about building a new growth path, it was still a major change that needed to be led in a structured and credible way. People can commit even to difficult decisions when the reasons are explained honestly, expectations are clear, and leadership remains steady.
The shutdown was completed on schedule and on budget. Customer continuity and satisfaction were maintained in a controlled way, employees stayed committed until the end, and leadership was satisfied with the outcome. On a personal level, it also mattered to me that I was able to support people forward and help them navigate a difficult situation.
This case reinforced one of the central truths of change leadership: in the most difficult moments, trust matters most. When people feel they are being led honestly and consistently, even hard transitions can be carried through in a respectful and humane way.
What should we understand about resistance to change?
Resistance to change is often treated as a problem, when in many cases it is simply a normal reaction to uncertainty. Most people do not resist change because they are difficult by nature. They resist it because change raises questions about security, competence, status, workload, and fairness.
That is why resistance should not be approached as something to break. It should be understood. People need information, room to ask questions, time to process what is happening, and a sense that their concerns are being taken seriously. Kotter's model works well here because it does not treat resistance as one isolated issue. It addresses it throughout the process through communication, involvement, obstacle removal, and visible progress.
In my experience, resistance tends to decrease significantly when three things are in place: the direction is clear, leadership is consistent, and people feel they are not being left alone in the middle of the change.
What have I learned about change leadership?
If I had to summarize my own view, change leadership is not mainly about process diagrams. It is about being able to combine business reality, people leadership, and day-to-day execution into one credible whole.
In change, you need to name the real problem honestly. You need to create a direction people can move toward. You need to build the right group around you to carry the change forward. You need to communicate more than you initially think is necessary. You need to make progress visible. And in the end, you need to make sure the new way of working is still visible in everyday life after the initial energy has faded.
That is why change leadership is one of the most demanding forms of leadership. It tests decision-making, resilience, communication, empathy, and the ability to hold the whole together under pressure.
At its best, successful change is not visible merely as a restructuring effort or a project plan. It shows up in something much more concrete: people understand the direction, everyday work functions better, and results improve in a sustainable way.