HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management (including featured article “Leading Change,” by John P. Kotter)

In successful transformations, the chairman or president or division general manager, plus another five or 15 or 50 people, come together and develop a shared commitment to excellent performance through renew

If the renewal target is the entire company, the CEO is key. If change is needed in a division, the division general manager is key. When these individuals are not new leaders, great leaders, or change champions, phase one can be a huge challenge.

Compared with other steps in the change process, phase one can sound easy. It is not. Well over 50% of the companies I have watched fail in this first phase. What are the reasons for that failure? Sometimes executives underestimate how hard it can be to drive people out of their comfort zones. Sometimes they grossly overestimate how successful they have already been in increasing urgency.

Kotter maintains that too many managers don’t realize transformation is a process, not an event. It advances through stages that build on each other. And it takes years. Pressured to accelerate the process, managers skip stages. But shortcuts never work.

Second, companies can easily communicate their importance, both within and outside organizations. Third, and perhaps most important, businesses are capable of influencing those elements quickly

In the final analysis, change sticks when it becomes “the way we do things around here,” when it seeps into the bloodstream of the corporate body

While celebrating a win is fine, declaring the war won can be catastrophic.

often, an employee understands the new vision and wants to help make it happen, but an elephant appears to be blocking the path.

Most people won’t go on the long march unless they see compelling evidence in 12 to 24 months that the journey is producing expected results

Without credible communication, and a lot of it, the hearts and minds of the troops are never captured.