Tweet

Change Management - Obama Style

Guest post by: Ben Nash

Article Overview: In the end President Obama got what he wanted-significant change in health care legislation. What lessons can change managers in organizations learn from the year long battle between the Republicans and the Democrats over this issue? And what grade can we give the Obama administration for managing the process. John Kotter’s change model is a useful analysis tool for this job.

Change Management - Obama Style

In the end President Obama got what he wanted—significant change in health care legislation. What lessons can change managers in organizations learn from the year long battle between the Republicans and the Democrats over this issue? And what grade can we give the Obama administration for managing the process. John Kotter’s change model is a useful analysis tool for this job. Kotter identified eight steps that organizations go through to achieve successful change:

1. Create a sense of urgency for change—low marks for Obama here! He did not come out fighting until the 11th hour.
2. Create a guiding collation to move the process forward—not too successful here either.
3. Develop a clear vision and a strategy for change—Whoops! Where was the clear vision of what was needed? It seemed to morph weekly if not daily.
4. Communicate the change vision—Obama “the great communicator” did not step up on this one either.
5. Empower broad based action—nope! He seemed to abdicate his power to congress most of the time.
6. Generate short term wins—None to speak of!
7. Consolidate gains and drive for more change—Seemed to have been more losses than gains from the original Democrats proposals.
8. Anchor new approaches in the culture—Let’s see if the legislation sticks after the November election!

Bottom line—The Obama administration got the change they wanted (by the skin of their teeth) but the process sucked! Grade for the Obama change process C-.

Related Articles
  Barack Obama scores a marketing home-run on The Tonight Show
  What Every Manager Can Learn From Barack Obama
  The Value of Your Personal Brand
  Why is the President Obama using YouTube?
  May the best brand win. And he did. - Three Great Branding Lessons from the Campaign Trail
  Get The Facts And Fight The Smears!
  Lead Like Obama
  What is Obama -The Politepreneur(c) - California Takshila University
  Obama and Friends On Stage - Implications for the Sales Force
  I've Figured Out President Obama's Religion
  No Excuses for being the next Success Story in Business
  LEADERSHIP IS FROM “WHAT WE ARE” TO “WHAT WE MAY BE”
  Keeping Your Customers
  Twice The Crime, In Half The Time!
  Obama and McCain - The Sales Analogy
  Lessons to be Learned When Politicians Attack the Media
  Is It Bad Management To Have Bad Managers?
  Yeah, Let's Go Back To 1967!
  The Obama Grassroots Campaign - 7 Reasons Why Your Organization Can't Duplicate It
  Be New and Improved

Article Tags: change management, health care, human resources, john kotter, obama, organization development



Related Forum Posts
Re: Obama or McCain? - If I want to be partial , I would say Obama because I am black. But this should not be if you want to vote objectively. Otherwise, I will prefer Obama because of his age, charisma and energy
Re: Obama Wants Social Security for Illegals - [quote="Alan Mater":3kaa8sg4] Obama WILL make changes... but they're not the changes we as a country need or should look forward to.[/quote:3kaa8sg4] Sad but this is exactly how I feel about it. Change is coming - but unless I'm really wrong, it is not a change this country needs. Amazing how much a good speaker with a good speech writer can do. If you paid attention to the things he said "off script" - much of it is frightening. Chris
Re: Still Not Sure Who To Vote For? - Hi IdeasU, Don't worry, I'm still committed to the evancarmichael forum, but I have been very busy since I returned from my holidays with editing work, extra teaching work during college term, several large and complicated orders from my Japanese-games-shop customers and the launch of a monthly PLR article writing service (see sig file!). === Back on topic... If I were an American citizen I would vote for Obama. I explained what did it for me on another thread. My main interest was foreign policy, but the more I watch Obama and McCain the more impressive Obama seems and the less convincing McCain appears. So far, Obama has proved excellent in handling the ad hominem attacks, and McCain's attempts to smear him with "associating with terrorists" look increasingly lame.
No B.S. Time Management - A great book I read on Time Management is No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs by Dan Kennedy.
Re: Will Politics Help Or Harm Your Business? - [quote="OmnivoreInk":c6d55zsv] I'm listening to Rush Limbaugh even as I type, and he's aired some soundbytes from last night, a couple of people on the Charlie Rose show, talking about how little is known about Obama, how he's a "personality cult' , for example apparently when he gave his acceptance speech he was on stage all alone - no Joe Biden (locked in a bar somewhere, Rose speculated) no family. First time that had ever happened. I can't remember all of what they said, but they were talking about a man who has just been elected President and they "don't know anything about him." They don't know what books he's read, they don't know his plans... all they know are his speeches where he talks about "Change" and "Yes we can." without giving specifics. [/quote:c6d55zsv] I've been saying for months that the American people don't know squat about Obama - how do people elect someone to have that kind of power without knowing anything of substance about them? Sure he gives pretty speeches - but when he doesn't have a teleprompter - his words are bizarre and frightening. Fascinating how that substance has been squashed and hidden for almost two years while he was in the public eye - with rose colored glasses, but all over the news. His first press conference is about to start - would love to hear his real thoughts without a prepared speech. At least this TV appearance won't cost his supporters millions - well, not for the air time anyway. Shri


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Counselling - Who Needs It?

Are You An Accidental Consultant?

The Pure FUN of Learning & Using NLP

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.