A Sense of Urgency John P. Kotter R279.00

You know your organization needs to change. You may even know what the change needs to be: a new strategy, a new IT system, an acquisition or reorganization. But somehow, change comes too slowly, or it feels like you’re pushing a boulder up a hill, or the implementation of that great new idea has stalled – again.
What’s missing? As change expert John Kotter shows in this book, what’s missing, and is needed in almost all organizations today, is a real sense of urgency – a distinctive attitude and gut-level feeling that lead people to grab opportunities and avoid hazards, to make something important happen today, and constantly shed low-priority activities to move faster and smarter, now.

Kotter knows about urgency. “Raising urgency” is the first step in his enormously successful eight-step framework, first articulated in Leading Change. But as Kotter illustrates, increasing urgency is the toughest of the eight steps, and the one without which even the most brilliant, high-powered initiatives will sputter and die.  More important, as we transition to a world where change is continuous – not just episodic – he shows how urgency must become a core, sustained capability.

Kotter provides key tactics for increasing urgency, as well as exposing and rooting out complacency, with chapters on:
Bringing the outside in
Behaving with urgency everyday
Finding opportunity in crises
Dealing with “NoNos” or naysayers

John P Kotter is the Konsuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School, and is widely regarded as the world’s foremost authority on leadership and change. He is the author of many books, including the international bestsellers Leading Change and Our Iceberg Is Melting.

Leading Change John P. Kotter R309.00

The author examines the efforts of more than 100 companies to remake themselves into better competitors. He identifies the most common mistakes leaders and managers make in attempting to create change and offers an eight-step process to overcome the obstacles and carry out the firm's agenda:

• establishing a greater sense of urgency
• creating the guiding coalition
• developing a vision and strategy
• communicating the change vision
• empowering others to act
• creating short-term wins
• consolidating gains and producing even more change
• institutionalizing new approaches in the future.

The Heart of Change John P. Kotter R330.00

For individuals in every walk of life and in every stage of change, this compact, no-nonsense book captures both the heart - and the "how" - of successful change. Organizations are forced to change faster and more radically than ever. How are companies faring in meeting these challenges - and what can we learn from their experiences? In this powerful follow-up book -organized around Leading Change's revolutionary eight-step change process - Kotter and co-author Dan Cohen reveal the results of their research in over 100 organizations in the midst of large-scale change. What they found may surprise you. Although most organizations believe change happens by making people think differently - Kotter and Cohen say the key lies more in making them feel differently. They introduce a new dynamic - "see-feel-change" - that sparks and fuels action by showing people potent reasons for change that charge their emotions. Through true stories from real people, the authors present a play-by-play of challenges encountered, mistakes made, and lessons learned through each of the eight steps of change - and offer tips and tools readers can apply within their own organizations.

Our Iceberg is Melting: Changing and succeeding under any conditions John P. Kotter R240.00

Most of the denizens of the Antarctic penguin colony sneer at Fred, the quiet but observant scout who detects worrying signs that their home, an iceberg, is melting.  Fred must cleverly convince and enlist key players, such as Louis, the head penguin; Alice, the number two bird; the intractable NoNo the weather expert; and a passle of school-age penguins if he is to save the colony.
Their delightfully told journey illuminates in an unforgettable way how to manage the necessary change that surrounds us all. Simple explanatory material following the fable enhances the lasting value of these lessons.
Our Iceberg Is Melting is at once charming, accessible and profound; a treat for virtually any reader.