Change or Be Changed: Why Most Transformations Fail by Step 2
A Field-Tested Look at Why Change Efforts Stall Early — and How to Fix It
Change is supposed to be exciting.
The vision decks are polished. The messaging is aligned. The leadership offsite ends with claps and renewed optimism.
But here’s what I’ve learned—often the hard way:
By the time you’re launching your change initiative, it’s already at risk.
Not because the idea is bad. Not because the people are resistant.
But because you skipped straight to step 3.
Real change dies quietly — not at the finish line, but in the opening act.
This is why most transformations fail by Step 2 of Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model.
And it’s why I no longer try to “roll out change.”
I build the conditions for it first.
🧭 Quick Refresher: Kotter’s 8 Steps
John Kotter’s framework is as follows:
Create a sense of urgency
Build a guiding coalition
Form a strategic vision and initiatives
Enlist a volunteer army
Enable action by removing barriers
Generate short-term wins
Sustain acceleration
Institute change
It’s not just a linear checklist — it’s a system for momentum.
And if you misstep early, no amount of execution downstream will compensate.
⚠️ Where Most Leaders (Including Me) Get It Wrong
When I first tried leading a major change effort — revamping how Engineering partnered with Operations — I skipped Kotter’s first two steps almost entirely.
Why?
Because I was convinced I had logic, strategy, and executive backing.
What I didn’t have?
Belief.
Buy-in.
Momentum.
I spent weeks drafting plans, aligning with leadership, and building a beautiful narrative.
Then I rolled it out to the team.
And what I got was... crickets.
Polite nods. Passive agreement.
Zero energy.
Here’s why: I was solving a problem they hadn’t emotionally felt yet.
🔥 Step 1: Create a Sense of Urgency — Before It’s Manufactured by Crisis
Urgency is emotional, not intellectual.
It’s not “Look at the data.” It’s: “If we don’t change, we fall behind.”
And if you're not the one creating urgency?
Eventually, reality will.
But by then, you’re reacting — not leading.
In my case, the breakdown between Ops and Engineering had become normalized.
People didn’t like it, but they were used to it.
I had to help them feel what that dysfunction was costing us — in missed opportunities, eroded trust, and wasted potential.
What worked:
Real stories from Ops about software pain points.
Time-to-impact maps showing delays caused by unclear handoffs.
Side-by-side comparisons of how other teams shipped faster with better collaboration.
It wasn’t a scare tactic. It was truth-telling.
And once people saw the cracks for what they were, they were ready to move.
🤝 Step 2: Build a Guiding Coalition — Not Just a Leadership Chain
Here’s the other mistake I made:
I thought “alignment with leadership” was enough.
It wasn’t.
Change moves at the speed of trust.
And trust doesn’t come from titles — it comes from credibility and connection.
A real guiding coalition isn’t just the management chain. It’s:
Influential engineers who others respect
Cross-functional peers who know how the system really works
Quiet culture carriers who shape team norms without a single direct report
So I started asking:
Who has social gravity in this organization?
Who do people listen to, even when no one's watching?
Who’s already acting in the direction we want to go?
Those people became the early builders. The signal boosters. The sanity checkers.
🧠 Strategic Vision ≠ Tactical Clarity
Only after I had urgency and a coalition did I revisit the vision.
This time, it wasn’t a roadmap — it was a story.
A shared “why,” rooted in team values:
Why this change matters now
What it will feel like when it’s working
What will be different — not just in output, but in daily experience
That story became the organizing principle behind everything that followed:
The initiatives. The experiments. The conversations.
💡 The Lesson I’ll Never Forget
If people aren’t moving with you, it’s not because they’re lazy or change-averse.
It’s because they don’t feel what you feel — yet.
Change doesn’t begin when a plan is approved.
It begins when urgency is shared and ownership is distributed.
So now, when I sense it’s time for transformation, I don’t start with vision.
I start with tension.
With curiosity.
With trust.
I slow down — so the organization can speed up.
🧩 A Quick Self-Check Before You Launch Change
Ask yourself:
✅ Have I created emotional urgency, not just a rational case for change?
✅ Can I name the informal leaders I need at my side — and are they aligned?
✅ Have I listened as much as I’ve planned?
✅ Can the team see themselves in the story I’m telling?
If you answer “no” to any of these — don’t launch.
Not yet.
Because if you skip Steps 1 and 2, you’ll spend 10x more effort downstream trying to rescue a change initiative that never had liftoff.
🏁 Closing Thought
Change is inevitable.
But transformation—the kind that reshapes how people think, behave, and collaborate—requires more than a plan.
It requires momentum, belief, and eventually… anchoring.
That’s what makes Step 8: Institute Change so important.
Too many transformations lose steam just after the first big win.
The rollout went well. The metrics improved.
But because the change was never embedded, the system reverts.
Old habits return. New behaviors fade.
And you’re back to where you started—only more tired, more cynical, and more resistant next time.
Step 8 reminds us that lasting change isn’t about what gets implemented. It’s about what gets normalized.
It’s in:
How you reward the new behaviors.
What you document in the onboarding guide.
Who you promote, and why.
What gets brought up in team retros, offsites, and hallway conversations—without you having to prompt it.
When change becomes culture, your role as “change leader” disappears.
That’s the goal.
Not to be the hero.
But to make the new way the way.
So yes—change or be changed.
But if you want your team, your org, or your culture to truly transform, don’t just launch the change.
Finish it. Anchor it. Live it.
Because if you don’t?
You’ll be writing the next post-mortem wondering where it all went sideways—again.
And that’s a cycle you don’t have time to repeat.