John Kotter's international bestseller 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 coauthor 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.

s+b Best Business Books 2001-2002
Soundview Executive Summaries - books selected in 2002

Book Review: Feelings Change: People change not so much because they are given analysis that shifts their thinking as because they are shown a truth that influences their emotions (@ CIO Insight)

Leading Change by Kotter, John
A Sense of Urgency by Kotter, John
Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions by Kotter, John
Leadership Without Easy Answers by Heifetz, Ronald

Get's at the Key Issues of Culture and Organization Change
This is a powerful follow up to Harvard Business School professor, John Kotter's, excellent previous book, Leading Change. As the subtitle of this book describes, it's a collection of stories about how people throughout their organizations (most are not senior managers) bring about change by connecting with others emotionally. The stories show, once again, that we're creatures of emotion and not logic. We make decisions based on our feelings and then look for the evidence to support that. Building on his well-known distinctions between management and leadership, John Kotter and his co-author Dan Cohen show that strong change leaders skip the PowerPoint presentations full of logical analysis, measurements, and bullet points. Rather they appeal to feelings with stories, metaphors, demonstrations, experiences, pilots, and the like to change behavior. The authors explain,"Our main finding, put simply, is that the central issue is never strategy, structure, culture, or systems. All those elements, and others, are important. But the core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people, and behavior change happens in highly successful situations mostly by speaking to people's feelings. This is true even in organizations that are very focused on analysis and quantitative measurement, even among people who think of themselves as smart in an M.B.A sense. In highly successful change efforts, people find ways to help others see the problems or solutions in ways that influence emotions, not just thought. Feelings then alter behavior sufficiently to overcome all the many barriers to sensible large-scale change. Conversely, in less successful cases, the seeing-feeling-changing pattern is found less often, if at all." I read The Heart of Change after I wrote The Leader's Digest: Timeless Principles for Team and Organization Success. One of the reasons I liked this book so much was because I had just constructed and started using a chart comparing Information versus Communication to illustrate the central management versus leadership theme of The Leader's Digest. The differences between Information and Communication sharply contrast managers and leaders. Managers push, leaders pull. Manager try to light a fire under people, leaders stoke the fire within. Managers focus on facts, leaders focus on feelings. Management is intellectual, leadership is emotional. Managers inform, leaders communicate.