The Heart of Change

Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations

By: John P. Kotter, Dan S. Cohen

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman

Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's Summary

John Kotter's international best seller Leading Change struck a powerful chord with legions of managers everywhere. It acknowledged the cynicism, pain, and fear they faced in implementing large-scale change - but also armed them with an eight-step plan of action for leaping boldly forward in a turbulent world.

Now, Kotter and co-author Dan S. Cohen delve deeper into the subject of change to get to the heart of how change actually happens. Through compelling, real-life stories from people in the trenches, in all kinds of organizations, the authors attack the fundamental problem that underlies every major transformation: How do you go beyond simply getting your message across to truly changing people's behavior?

Based on interviews within over 100 organizations in the midst of large-scale change, The Heart of Change delivers the simple yet provocative answer to this question, forever altering the way organizations and individuals approach change. While most companies believe change happens by making people think differently, Kotter and Cohen say the key lies in making them feel differently. They introduce a new dynamic - "see-feel-change" - that fuels action by showing people potent reasons for change that spark their emotions.

Organized around the revolutionary eight-step change process introduced in Leading Change, this story-driven book shows how the best change leaders use not just reports or analysis, but gloves, video cameras, airplanes, office design, and other concrete elements to impel people toward positive action. The authors reveal how this appeal to the heart - over the mind - motivates people to overcome even daunting obstacles to change and produce breathtaking results.

For individuals in every walk of life and companies in every stage of change, this compact, no-nonsense book captures the heart - and the how - of successful change.

©2002 John P. Kotter and Deliotte Consulting LLC (P)2008 Macmillan Audio

Critic Reviews

"Kotter and Cohen demonstrate the critical difference that focus, faith, leadership, commitment and creativity make in winning employees' hearts, offering good stories that truly apply to each topic." ( Publishers Weekly)

Narration is really not that bad; content is good

This book lays out Kotter's 8-step change process; (paraphrased)
1) Create a Sense of Urgency
2) Build a Strong Core Team
3) Create a Vision
4) Communicate the Vision / Get Buy-In
5) Enable / Empower / Remove Obstacles
6) Create Short-Term Wins
7) Sustain the Effort / Don't Declare Victory Too Soon
8) Make the Change Part of the Culture to Make it Stick

He leverages some pretty helpful real-life stories to illustrate effective versus ineffective change management. The stories are fairly memorable and still effective in making the point despite being a little dated at this point.

The narration is fine. I guess many reviewers think it should be read more like a story with different voices, but as a business text that was relating stories (not trying to immerse the reader in a fantasy world like a business fable), I didn't find the narration off putting at all.

Overall, I recommend the book if you are in a leadership position. The advice is simple and solid. Of course it's not adhered to nearly enough, even when you know that you SHOULD follow this guidance.

Shame about the narration

I was really looking forward to hearing Kotter's latest offering and was not disappointed. The first hand case studies were illuminating and inspiring, it's a shame therefore that different voices were not employed in telling them. I found the use of only one narrator spoilt the impact of the content, I found myself nodding off now and then and/or having to rewind to ensure the point being made stayed with me.

Great piece of work but unfortunate narration

This is a great piece of work with breakthrough ideas. However, unabridged narration does not encourages listening.

Sections Missing

Any additional comments?

The audible book seems to be missing sections, there are quite a few instances where the sentence is cut off and a brand new one with a different topic starts. I am not sure what happened in the editing process.

great

really enjoyed the thorough insight and looking forward to learn more about the authors works

interesting book

As a manager, it shows and remind me another perspective of the organization. I enjoyed it as it is accompanied by the book. worth reading it

Leaders.

Narration was good. It's amazing as to how much sounds like common sense however so many leaders get it wrong.

Insightful

An in depth look into the human side of organisational change using real life stories to support the narrative

Good and to the point

A good book that will help you understand how to affect change in an organization. For class I had to read this book and it did a very good job of breaking down all the stages of creating change. It is a good book for any manager to read. It will help you understand how things work or dont work.

Great book

I really enjoyed the content of this book, but would have enjoyed it much better with different narration. It's not bad, it's just not right for this book.

Still the information is very good and illustrates the differing methods used in varying situations to effect change.

A Kotter Classic

This was abgreat read. I found the many examples of change very thought provoking and helpful.

Easy Listening

While this book is an easy book to listen and comprehend, it is far from life changing. Stories of company transformations, one airline producer changed using radical new ideas, these ideas in fact are straight from the Toyota production system.
The book focuses the change process on successful change with little explanation of why each change needs a different assessment, even within the same company.
Over all there are far better books on change management, but worthy of a listen as a first introduction to understanding change.