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9/30/13 Change Management vs. Change Leadership -- What's the Difference? - Forbes
www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2011/07/12/change-management-vs-change-leadership-whats-the-difference/ 1/6
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LEADER SHI P | 7/12/2011 @ 1:53PM | 74,736 views
Change Management vs. ChangeLeadership -- What's theDifference?
I am often asked about the
difference between
“change management” and
“change leadership,” and
whether it’s just a matter
of semantics. These terms
are not interchangeable.
The distinction between
the two is actually quite
significant. Change
management, which is the term most everyone uses, refers to a set
of basic tools or structures intended to keep any change effort
under control. The goal is often to minimize the distractions and
impacts of the change. Change leadership, on the other hand,
concerns the driving forces, visions and processes that fuel large-
scale transformation. In this video, I delve a little deeper into the
differences between the two concepts, and highlight why we need
more change leadership today.
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9/30/13 Change Management vs. Change Leadership -- What's the Difference? - Forbes
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A full transcription of this video post is below:
There is a difference that is very fundamental, and it’s very big, between what
is known today as “change management” and what we have been calling for
some time “change leadership.” The world basically uses change
management, which is a set of processes and a set of tools and a set of
mechanisms that are designed to make sure that when you do try to make
some changes, A, it doesn’t get out of control, and B, the number of problems
associated with it—you know, rebellion among the ranks, bleeding of cash that
you can’t afford–doesn’t happen. So it is a way of making a big change and
keeping it, in a sense, under control. Change leadership is much more
associated with putting an engine on the whole change process, and making it
go faster, smarter, more efficiently. It’s more associated, therefore, with large
scale changes. Change management tends to be more associated—at least,
when it works well—with smaller changes.
If you look around the world right now and just talk to people, it’s not just
semantics. Everybody talks about managing change and change management,
because that’s what they do. If you look at all of the tools, they’re trying to
push things along, but it’s trying to minimize disruptions, i.e., keep things
under control. It’s trying to make sure change is done efficiently in the sense
of you don’t go over budget—another control piece. It’s done with little change
management groups inside corporations, sometimes external consultants that
are good at that, training in change management. It’s done with task forces
that are basically given the whole goal of push this thing along, but keep it
under control. It’s done with various kinds of relationships that are given
names like “executive sponsors,” where the executive sponsor watches over
this thing to make sure that it proceeds in an orderly way.
And change leadership is just fundamentally different—it’s an engine. It’s
more about urgency. It’s more about masses of people who want to make
something happen. It’s more about big visions. It’s more about empowering
lots and lots of people. Change leadership has the potential to get things a
little bit out of control. You don’t have the same degree of making sure that
everything happens in a way you want at a time you want when you have the
1,000 horsepower engine. What you want to do, of course, is have a highly
skilled driver and a heck of a car, which will make sure your risks are
John Kotter
Contributor
Follow (368)
I am the Head of Research at Kotter
International, a firm that helps leaders
accelerate strategy implementation in their
organizations. I am also the Konosuke
Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus at
Harvard Business School. Kotter International
works with large-scale organizations to help
them move faster, with less chaos and more
efficiency , enabling success no matter the
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minimum. But it is fundamentally different.
The world, as we all know right now, talks about, thinks about, and does
change management. The world, as we all know, doesn’t do much change
leadership, since change leadership is associated with the bigger leaps that we
have to make, associated with windows of opportunity that are coming at us
faster, staying open less time, bigger hazards and bullets coming at us faster,
so you really have to make a larger leap at a faster speed. Change leadership is
going to be the big challenge in the future, and the fact that almost nobody is
very good at it is—well, it’s obviously a big deal.
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9/30/13 Change Management vs. Change Leadership -- What's the Difference? - Forbes
www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2011/07/12/change-management-vs-change-leadership-whats-the-difference/ 4/6
John Kotter has a way with words and his description of Change Management and Change
Leadership is very precise. It is true that people the world over only concentrate on
Change Management and not Change Leadership since they would like to control and
maintain statusquo ratherthan bring about visionary changes to a particular situation.
Reply
Bravo Dr. Kotter! Great article on what I believe is an evolution in defining our roles as
leaders. “Management” implies a system or process that has to be constantly monitored,
whereas “Leadership” suggests that we can assemble and inspire a group of people who
will design and own a self sustaining program born of their ingenuity and collaboration.
“Management Systems” are limiting whereas “Leadership Systems” are more fluid and
allow for infinite possibilities. Don’t get me wrong…structure is important, but for me the
underlying priorities of a leader are to influence, not manage, and inspire change. It may
seem like semantics but each of these words have a very specific connotation or feel.
Reply
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9/30/13 Change Management vs. Change Leadership -- What's the Difference? - Forbes
www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2011/07/12/change-management-vs-change-leadership-whats-the-difference/ 5/6
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This question does come up from time to time, and it is a rather clear way to position the
answer. On the other hand, I find it much more difficult to define what is differentiating
Change Leadership from Leadership itself… Indeed, is there a real difference ? Shouldn’t
we refer to Change Management vs Leadership ?
Reply
Mr. Kotter, I like your article. However, I only partially agree with you about what
change leadership is.
“Change leadership, on the other hand, concerns the driving forces, visions and processes
that fuel large-scale transformation.” -John Kotter.
My disagreement has to do with large-scale transformation, as I feel any scale is relevant.
You may agree with me that a manager is also a leader, especially when there are
followers looking for direction that only their manager can give–but, the change
leadership authority makes all final decisions on the direction, the vision as you have
stated. That direction will not passed to the change manager as he or she is only managing
the change..as to what the authority has directed.
For instance, the choice for an organizational change method will be chosen by the
change leadership authority, envisioning the organization’s future surrounding the
choice, and getting feedback from his or her managers and/or consultants. Leadership
authority lets change management authority manage the change, and then he or she
reports to the change leadership authority–even when leadership authority is leading by
affirmation.
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