Great leaders understand that historical success tends to produce stable and inwardly focused organizations, and these outfits, in turn, reinforce a feeling of contentment with the status quo.
John P. KotterRead
If the culture you have is radically different from an 'experiment and take-risk' culture, then you have a big change you going to have to make - and no little gimmicks are going to do it for you.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the need for substantial cultural change in organizations, especially where risk-taking is not valued.
John P. Kotter highlights that if an organization's culture is fundamentally opposed to taking risks and experimenting, mere superficial changes or gimmicks will not suffice. Meaningful transformation requires deep, structural changes in mindset and practices to foster a culture that embraces experimentation and risk.
Themes
CultureChangeRiskExperimentTransformation
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a corporate training session on fostering a culture of innovation.
More from John P. Kotter
All quotes →We are always creating new tools and techniques to help people, but the fundamental framework is remarkably resilient, which means it must have something to do with the nature of organizations or human nature.
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Managers are trained to make incremental, programmatic improvements. They aren't trained to lead large-scale change.
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Because management deals mostly with the status quo and leadership deals mostly with change, in the next century we are going to have to try to become much more skilled at creating leaders.
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Outsiders have the intuitive ability to continually view problems in fresh ways and to identify ineffective practices and traditions.
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Those in leadership positions who fail to grasp or use the power of stories risk failure for their companies and for themselves.
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