Kotter, Lewin, ADKAR, resistance, and leading transitions — the operator's guide to changing how an organization works without breaking it.
For: Leaders, HR, founders, transformation owners
John Kotter found that most change efforts fail because steps are skipped. Here's the sequence, where most leaders break it, and the diagnostic to find which step you're stuck on.
The simplest and oldest change model — and the one most useful for thinking about behavior change at the human level. The fundamental physics that every later model is built on.
Kotter and Lewin work at the org level. ADKAR is the model for the human level — what each person needs to actually change, and which letter is your current bottleneck.
Most leaders treat resistance as the problem. It's actually the most valuable data you have. Here's how to read it — and the 5 drivers that need 5 different interventions.
William Bridges drew the distinction every leader should know: change is external; transition is the internal psychological work. Skip it and the change won't stick.