Instituting Organizational Change at Company Level

Instituting organizational change is one of the hardest tasks for commanders to plan and execute, even when circumstances are ideal. When they aren’t, the challenges can seem insurmountable. Fortunately, there’s help: Dr. John Kotter’s “8-Step Process for Leading Change.” I used the process to transform a dysfunctional and demoralized tank company into the most lethal unit rotated to the Republic of Korea. This article explains what I did at each step. On a cold December morning at Camp Hovey, South Korea, I assumed command of Delta Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment. I was nervous, and for good reason. I was thrust into command of a tank company, one of the most destructive units in the U. S. arsenal. Specifically, I was replacing a commander who had been relieved in part for fostering a negative command climate. This command would determine my career. I would repair the broken company or suffer my predecessor’s fate. After the assumption-ofcommand ceremony, I met with my Soldiers for brief introductions and released them for the holiday weekend. It was Christmas Eve 2014. My immediate concern was to improve the command climate and prepare the company for an event that’s everything to tankers: gunnery. The company was unlikely to perform unless things turned around in a hurry. Gunnery was scheduled for early February, only weeks away. As I planned, I remembered the tools I studied a year earlier for my master’s degree in organizational leadership,1 which I completed while at the Maneuver Captain’s Career Course (MCCC). Kotter’s eight-step process stood out as the best template to follow. The “big opportunity” for my company, the center of Kotter’s graphic, was to transform the unit into the most lethal tank company on the Korean Peninsula. Our rotation to Korea provided this easily identifiable opportunity. The unit fell in on a specified mission that was already understood by most Soldiers, and they knew what needed doing. Hundreds of lives depended on our ability to quickly react and provide security should hostilities on the peninsula resume. Although our battalion was from 1st Cavalry Division, we were assigned temporarily in Korea to 2nd Infantry Division, which had about six months left in its rotation. This gave me little time to make sweeping changes if the company was to have a successful rotation. Therefore, I knew I must act quickly and decisively to put the company on the right track. Soldiers are willing to work harder and longer during training and gunnery than they are during reset operations. So if the changes didn’t take hold before we redeployed, they were unlikely to stick once we returned to the United States. Knowing the next six months were critical, I focused first on planning for stabilized gunnery just six weeks away. Step 1: create a sense of urgency The first step in Kotter’s process, creating a sense of urgency, is essential to ensuring a change initiative gains traction. Without it, Soldiers tend to lose interest and motivation, and the even the best initiative can stagnate. The first step was perhaps the easiest because our limited timetable forced a sense of urgency on the company. We had only six weeks to conduct Figure 1. Kotter’s eight-step process. (Copyright www.kotterinternational.com; used by permission.)

inventories, train and prepare our vehicles for gunnery. As gunnery was our battalion’s culminating event, it forced the Soldiers to focus on their jobs and proficiencies. With a shortened timeline and the pressure that comes with preparing for gunnery, the Soldiers easily saw that a change needed to occur within the company, and it needed to occur right away. The company lost the “top tank company” streamer during the previous gunnery, which served to fuel their competitive spirit. Also, they had served for many months in a dysfunctional, not-well-respected unit. They wanted to repair their damaged reputation and knew performance during gunnery could begin to do this. Step 2: build a guiding coalition Here the leader driving change needs buy-in from other leaders. Attempting to produce organizational change sin-glehandedly is most often doomed; one person’s forceful personality isn’t enough. When the leader leaves the organization, it slips back into its old ways. A guiding coalition ensures that other leaders will sustain the change initiative. In the Army, identifying the key members of any guiding coalition is usually easy. It’s the leaders. In my case, they were the company’s first sergeant, platoon leaders and platoon sergeants. Without their buy-in, the unit’s culture wasn’t going to change. The previous commander had created distrust and animosity between him and the company. To repair that fractured relationship, I worked to win over all my leaders. I wanted to show the first sergeant that we were a team, and our company’s physical layout provided the perfect opportunity. Between the commander’s office and the first sergeant’s was a wall with a sliding-glass window that was painted over. The first time I walked into my office, I opened the window. This simple gesture immediately prompted my first sergeant to tell me the previous commander had kept the window closed, saying that his business was his own. I replied that I wanted the window open because I would constantly be seeking his counsel and, more importantly, that we were a team and would have no secrets. I told him I’d knock down the wall between our offices if I could to make communication easier, but for now I’d settle for the small window. That was all it took. From that moment on, we were an inseparable team. I also had to win over the three platoon leaders, who had been marginalized by the previous commander. He had micromanaged down to the Soldier level, undermining the authority of the platoon leaders and alienating them. I started a mission-command system that allowed platoon leaders to execute their tasks as they saw fit. I interfered only if I believed their plan jeopardized safety. Failure was acceptable as long as the mission didn’t suffer and Soldiers learned from it. This meant that I had to assume the risk and responsibility that went with providing freedom to fail. Letting subordinate leaders do things their way was hard for me, but I knew it showed my trust in them and would inspire their confidence in me. The first opportunity to implement my mission-command system came when I issued my executive officer guidance for change-of-command layouts. The guidance called for laying out all basic-issue items (BII)/components of end items (COEI) beside the equipment and including with each item a shortage annex prefilled out with all shortages. It also called for putting like items together to avoid double counting. My guidance ended there. Although my guidance was generic and contained nothing groundbreaking, it helped set the stage for my command. My executive officer and platoon leaders were used to a commander who micromanaged down to the smallest details, often specifying the exact layout for all items and BII/COEI. When I didn’t go there, they asked if I wanted certain items laid out in certain ways. I told them this was their mission, and as long as they met my intent, they could execute it however they saw fit. I noticed a change in them as they set about drafting their plan. Inventories proceeded smoothly, and though items were not laid out exactly my way, their way was quite good enough. For the first time in months, the platoon leaders had carried out their own plan rather than just executing the commander’s. By giving my platoon leaders the opportunity to lead, they quickly became the next members of my coalition. Finally, I knew buy-in from my three platoon sergeants was paramount. Fortunately, I had ignorance going for me. I had been a platoon leader and executive officer of a dismounted-infantry company, so I knew little about tanking. The last time I had set foot in an Abrams was Armor Officer Basic Course (AOBC) more than five years earlier. Now I had to prepare a company to conduct tank gunnery on a range whose terrain differed vastly from Fort Hood’s. I met with the platoon sergeants, each with some 15 years of tank experience, and laid out our problem. We had only a few weeks to prepare the company for gunnery and to educate me in the process. After an awkward silence, one platoon sergeant asked what I needed. I said I needed the experts, meaning them, to develop the gunnery train-up plan and brief me on what resources they needed and how much of the available weeks we had before the gunnery they needed to conduct the training. I was met with three beaming smiles and an almost synchronized, “Roger, sir, don’t worry about it. We’ve got you covered.” Just like that, all three platoon sergeants were on board. They knew I needed them; failure during gunnery might end my command and career. But seeing my honesty and trust in them, they responded in kind. In a few short weeks, my guiding coalition of first sergeant, platoon leaders and platoon sergeants had taken shape. Step 3: form strategic visions and initiatives Today’s Soldiers want the “why” to every order. Older Soldiers like my first sergeant hate this; they expect Soldiers to execute. But to get the most from Soldiers, I’ve learned to explain why certain tasks matter and why Soldiers should care. They perform better if they know how their actions help achieve the overall company vision.

Shortly after assuming command, the company participated in an awards ceremony where it received the maintenance-excellence streamer for the previous year. The ceremony gave me an opportunity to address the company. I began by praising their accomplishments over the past year, highlighting their hard work and dedication that led to the streamer. Then I spoke about my vision for the company. First and foremost, we would win “top tank company” during the upcoming gunnery, and with the streamer back with Delta Company, we’d set our sights on the rifle-qualification streamer. My first sergeant stopped me mid-sentence. He reminded everyone that we were tankers and that the most important event for us was the upcoming gunnery and winning the gunnery award. My first sergeant had just disagreed with me in front of the entire company. I had a decision to make that would have long-lasting effects. Instead of arguing with my first sergeant, I used the moment to further refine the company vision. I asked the company what they saw as the most important events and standards. Multiple Soldiers and noncommissioned officers (NCOs) answered using nearly identical terms. Delta Company believed it was capable of being the best-trained and best-maintained tank company in the battalion. I told the company I would make it my goal to align all company actions to support this vision. Because we were in Korea, I spoke of the importance of readiness and rolled “fight tonight” under the umbrella of best-trained tank company. Because the Soldiers had defined much of the company vision, they accepted my readiness caveat. Although their vision didn’t align perfectly with what I had planned, it met my intent and excited the Soldiers. I have found no better way to motivate Soldiers toward a common goal than to allow them to help create the goal in the first place. At every opportunity, I related our daily operations to our shared vision, further motivating the Soldiers to perform. At one meeting, Soldiers complained about having to start the tanks every two hours, even on the weekends. My reply: to remain ready and lethal, our tanks needed to start at any time and in any weather. During Korea’scold winters, batteries drain at an astonishing rate, and failing to perform starts every two hours would quickly lead to dead batteries, extra maintenance and decreased company performance. Word of my explanation spread, and complaints stopped. Step 4: enlist a volunteer army Whereas Step 2 calls for a coalition of leaders, this step involves getting buy-in at all levels. Without broad and deep support, changes often fail to take hold if the change champion leaves. Before I arrived, Delta Company was a unit that people tried to avoid or leave. Its call sign, “Dragoon,” had become poisoned by the actions of the previous command and, in one Soldier’swords, was “basically a swear word.” It expressed the dissatisfaction, frustration and anger Soldiers felt toward the unit and its leadership. I needed something to distinguish myself and my command climate from the past. I decided to change the call sign. “Dragoon” had been used as far back as the Iraq War. Simply choosing anew call sign myself would not achieve the desired results. I needed the Soldiers to buy in and have a vested interest in the new direction of the company. Across several weeks, I talked with Soldiers about whether to replace “Dragoon” and what call sign to use if we did. Once I sensed some willingness to change, I put it to a formal vote with platoon leadership tallying their numbers. About 80 percent favored anew call sign. Soldiers and the platoon leadership suggested 10 names, and I narrowed them to a more manageable four. Then each platoon voted for its favorite, and we were down to two: “Doom” and “Death Dealers.” One morning immediately after physical training (PT), I took the formation from my first sergeant and put the two names to a vote. What I had expected to take five minutes took 20 as people argued for one name or the other. Two NCOs held out for the old “Dragoon” and refused to vote, a frustrating stand that showed me who would be barriers to change. After much arguing and several friendly insults, the company voted. Soldiers in favor of “Doom” moved to my right, while those in favor of “Death Dealers” moved to my left. And so we had anew call sign: “Doom.” (I had preferred “Death Dealers.”) Now Soldiers had more evidence that their opinions played apart in company decisions, and I was closer to having my volunteer army. My army also grew through frequent praise and rewards for accomplishments. I bought company coins and handed them out to deserving Soldiers each week at closeout formation. Mechanics got extra time off after services were complete. Soldiers who were expecting a child returned home for the birth. Finally, I praised the accomplishments of individual Soldiers during formation. These actions helped to ensure almost all the company became part of my volunteer army. Soldiers began engaging me on a frequent basis. Complaints about mission requirements nearly disappeared. Most importantly, the Soldiers began bringing sensitive issues to the chain of command for help. The company began functioning like a team once more. Step 5: enable action by removing barriers Every commander is in the barrier-removal business, whether it’s clearing time on the training calendar, helping to secure resources or ensuring Soldiers get their benefits. Changing my company’s culture involved its share of removing and reducing barriers. Seeking to curb off-duty drinking in Korea, 2nd Infantry Division promoted healthy recreational events in the form of the Commander’s Cup. Because the division promoted the Cup so heavily, so did the battalion, which encouraged Soldiers to participate even during duty hours. But the hours consumed by these Commander’s Cup events were barriers to my training plan. When I briefed my training schedule to battalion each week, I was asked why no Commander’s Cup events were scheduled, and each week I explained that I needed the hours to prepare for gunnery – and I got them. Another barrier to change was the expectation that, like the previous commander, I would show up at training and rework the training plan. Instead, I explained my intent to the leaders and let them plan and execute using Kotter’s eight-step training model. I might have conducted the training differently, but as long as it met my intent, it was acceptable. After I inspected several training events and the leaders realized they needn’t worry about the commander reworking their plans on-site, their confidence grew and the quality of training improved dramatically. In essence, I transitioned the company away from command-and-control and established mission command as our guiding principle. Then there were the two NCOs who wouldn’t vote for any new call sign. They had been with the company the longest and continually expressed their dissatisfaction with the “new” one. They had served through multiple combat deployments as Dragoon and didn’t appreciate anew commander changing their company’s identity. However, when the company redeployed to Fort Hood, TX, the two NCOs became my biggest change agents. Knowing their long connection with the company, I assigned them an additional duty: unit historians. The two NCOs gathered photos of the unit’s deployments, complete with names, dates and locations. Then they framed the photos and hung them in the company conference room, where the two spent many hours telling war stories to new Soldiers about the unit’s deployments. The Dragoon name didn’t vanish from company life. I ordered that Dragoon memorabilia be kept in the company beside Doom memorabilia. I also created a quarterly company competition for the “best dragoon award,” which went to the Soldier who had the best average PT score, M-4 qualification, M-9 qualification and fastest 12-mile ruck time. An award plaque was engraved with the name of the winner, who received a four-day pass. In the end, these two Soldiers became two of my strongest supporters and advocates for the company. One even offered to buy a company coin for $300. I refused, but he later earned one for his excellent conduct and still greets me as “Doom 6.” Step 6: generate short-term wins Soldiers are more willing to support a change if they see it is producing positive results. This is key in expanding the volunteer army. Short-term wins help cement the organizational-change behaviors and continue to drive the unit in the direction of change. As tankers, we get only one chance every six months to demonstrate our proficiency in our military-occupation specialty. That chance is gunnery. It lets Soldiers display their skills and gives the winners bragging rights for the next six months. Even before taking command, I knew success during the gunnery would be the defining event of my organizational-change initiative. The company was still bitter about losing the “top tank company” streamer a year before. The Soldiers wanted to win and win big. If that happened, most Soldiers would buy in to the change I wanted to instill. The company wanted to be the most lethal organization on the Korea Peninsula, and they knew this was an essential step. During the weeks prior, I shifted the company’s focus completely to gunnery preparation. I made a concerted effort to remove all events from our calendar that were not related to gunnery or gunnery prep. For three straight weeks, the Soldiers did nothing but prepare for gunnery. Having not trained on a tank myself since AOBC, I found myself completely dependent on my senior NCOs for training; I became just another Soldier training for the upcoming gunnery. This decision produced two things. First, it allowed me to focus on training and prepare myself to fire my first tank gunnery. Second, it demonstrated the great faith I placed in my senior NCOs, my guiding coalition. They saw I would allow them to do their job, and I would support them with anything they needed: resources, time, etc. I enabled them, and in return, they enabled us to be successful. After deploying to Rodriguez Live Fire Range, we began final preparations for the qualification table. With only a few days before Table VI, the first sergeant and I faced a critical shortfall: steak and eggs. Tanker tradition calls for the unit to provide a breakfast of steak and eggs to each crew after its qualification run. It’s the tanker’s celebration feast. Only now did we hear that the battalion had turned down the food request we submitted weeks earlier. The first sergeant and I refused to accept this outcome, and with help from the S-4, we bought steak and eggs on the local economy. Word spread that despite the battalion not providing a steak-and-egg breakfast, the company leadership had pulled it off. This small gesture, one meal, provided a last-minute spark for the Soldiers to work just a bit harder. It provided a short-term win. Properly trained and motivated, the company excelled during gunnery, earning awards for top tank in the brigade, top tank platoon in the brigade and top tank company in the battalion. This was exactly the win the company desperately needed to provide a spark and continue to drive the change. Back at Camp Hovey, we created streamers that the acting battalion commander placed on the company guidon, a sign to the Soldiers that their hard work had paid off. Step 7: sustain acceleration Sustaining acceleration is harder than generating short-term wins because it demands much more long-term planning. Once the organization discovers what it can achieve, the leader must find missions and other ways to challenge the Soldiers and visibly demonstrate their improvement. After gunnery, I turned to sustaining the momentum started by our short-term win. To cultivate the desire to excel at everything we did, I publicly praised Soldiers for their hard work and accomplishments. An opportunity came after platoons completed gunnery assessment in the simulators at the Close-Combat Tactical Trainer (CCTT). They earned two of the top scores in the battalion. I praised each platoon in front of the company, com-plimenting them on their individual strengths during the assessment. But more time went to praising the platoon that had earned the overall highest marks in the battalion. I reminded the Soldiers that in war, there is no prize for second place. So every mission was to be executed to the absolute best of our abilities, and our expectation was always to be the best. The CCTT performance was just another example of our ability to win consistently. We continued to excel by creating ammunition-upload procedures for rotational units, earning praise from the brigade and division commanders. The company came up with an unorthodox but effective way to upload ammunition that allowed us to retrieve our combat load, upload and conduct linkup with our higher headquarters within the allotted time without interfering with other units. This was no small feat given that every unit on Camp Casey/ Hovey already had a well-ingrained alert procedure except for the two rotational companies. Through a careful terrain analysis, some out-of-the-box thinking and quality observations from several junior-enlisted Soldiers, we planned, tested and published procedures for all follow-on rotation units, despite us not receiving direct support from a higher headquarters. Our redeployment to Fort Hood provided an opportunity to continue sustaining our acceleration. I continually hounded the Soldiers about the importance of maintenance, especially while in Korea, and it paid off when we signed over all our equipment to the follow-on company without issue or loss. But the real test came as our company began to leave and our replacements took ownership and executed their first full alert. Our replacements were the only company in their battalion to have 100 percent of their vehicles operational and staged on time. This legacy of success was yet another opportunity to recognize Soldiers for the hard work that made Delta Company the most efficient and lethal unit on the Korean Peninsula. Step 8: institute change During this final step in the Kotter process, leaders need to see whether lasting change has taken hold. Do Soldiers voluntarily act in ways that support the change? Have they come to own the change? Ownership began to occur around the time we redeployed to the United States, six months after I took command. The first time I realized the change I had originally envisioned for my company had indeed become institutionalized was when my junior leaders began to question actions or orders that seemed to cut corners. When told to conduct maintenance on all the company’s tanks in a single morning, the gunners questioned the order. Their inspections would be substandard, they said. It would be maintenance just for show. Junior leaders showed a similar commitment to excellence. Missions became competitions between platoons or against our sister company. Junior leaders became more involved in everything from PT to CCTT exercises. They drove not only accomplishing the mission but to be the best at it. Our original opportunity had finally manifested in the company’s junior leaders. Although we were no longer on rotation to the Republic of Korea, the Soldiers internalized the mission of being the most lethal tank company in the Army. They understood the significance of extra work and being the best vs. looking the best. As a commander, I saw it as my job to differentiate between what might make us look good and what would help us to be good. Sometimes these line up, but at other times I was forced to make the unpopular choice and focus more on training and less on appearances. Ultimately, this philosophy paid dividends whenever the unit conducted field training or evaluations. We remained the best at executing our main mission: to close with and destroy the enemies of the United States. Final thoughts Though Kotter’s process for creating organizational change wasn’t created for the military, its eight steps worked for me. As a junior captain seeking to turn around an ailing company, they gave me a checklist to follow. Still, the process doesn’t fit the military perfectly. If any step made me wish I was in a business, it was No. 5 (enable action by removing barriers). A business can remove personnel who are barriers more easily than military organizations. When a business seeks to change its culture or undergoes a merger/ acquisition, often a major barrier is the employees who resist the new ways. A business can fire employees who are not “on the bus.” In the military, though, removing similarly obstinate personnel is harder, so the military leader must find creative ways to mute their opposition – or even better, to convert those voices to the change. Many traits considered essential for a change agent are already captured in the Army’s definition of leadership. The responsibility of command forces the role of change agent upon a commander. He or she is less likely to task a middle manager or hire a consultant to bring about change as a business might, though the military commander can make a proposed change an essential mission for the unit. Another difference between a business leader and military one is turnover. Military leaders may be reassigned after just 12-18 months, giving them no time to see a change through. A business leader can be kept in a position until a change is complete. Despite these qualifications, Kotter’s eight steps provide a fine place to start. They are reminders that business organizations and Army ones have a lot in common, and that change doesn’t just happen. It takes deliberate steps by determined leaders and a sound plan like Kotter’s. When CPT Daniel Rowe wrote this article, he commanded Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, TX. Previous assignments include commander, Delta Company, 3-8 Cavalry, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood; assistant S-3, 3-8 Cavalry, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division; and executive officer, Cherokee Troop, 6-4 Cavalry, 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Knox, KY. CPT Rowe’s military schooling includes MCCC, Cavalry Leader’s Course and AOBC. He holds a bachelor’s of science degree in military history from the U. S. Military Academy and a master’s of science degree in organizational leadership from Columbus State University. Notes 1 The Military Master Degree Program began a few years ago at MCCC. Each course selects a limited number of captains to

Acronym Quick-Scan earn their master’s of science degree in organizational leadership from the Turner College of Business, the fully accredited business school that is part of Columbus State University. Interested Soldiers should contact MCCC directly. AOBC – Armor Officer Basic Course BII – basic-issue item CCTT – Close-Combat Tactical Trainer COEI – components of end item MCCC – Maneuver Captain’s Career Course NCO – noncommissioned officer PT – physical training Figure 2. Gunnery is an event that’s ‘everything to tankers.’