9/30/13 Change Management vs. Change Leadership -- What's the Difference? - Forbes

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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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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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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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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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