Steps 6 & 7: Create Short-Term Wins and Don’t Let Up

Mt. Everest isn’t scaled in a day. It takes months and months of training and planning. Once the climb does start, the climbers certainly don’t climb the entire thing in one day. They climb a bit each day and rest at camps along the way to regain strength for the next push. The same concept holds true in change efforts. We can’t accomplish the entire goal in one day. To keep up momentum and help make the challenge more palatable we must set up a series of short term goals, much like stepping stones, that will help us achieve our long term change goal.

Specific questions or items to address:

Read Step 6 “Create Short-Term Wins” and Step 7 “Don’t Let Up” from Kotter and Cohen's The Heart of Change. First, review the feedback from your instructor on Part 6. Use any new information you gained from the discussion and feedback from your instructor to revise and improve Part 6 of your project. Next, compile Part 7 of your project, explaining the short term wins you can facilitate for your team. Use the exercise on page 138 to compile the first portion of Part 7, answering the questions provided in the exercise. You may find page 140 helpful in reviewing the key points of what to do and not do when setting short term goals. Be sure your paper touches on the key elements of each as they pertain to your organization.

Next explain what you will do to help ensure your change efforts don’t fade when you have accomplished your goals. How will you help prevent burn out? How will you help maintain the change once it’s implemented? You may find page 157 helpful in reviewing the key points of what to do and not do when not letting up on the change effort. Be sure your paper touches on the key elements of each as they pertain to your organization.

Be sure to include at least three scholarly references to support your assertions written in your own words. Do not copy word for word from the course text or any other sources. Your submission this week is Part 7 of the final project.

The requirements below must be met for your paper to be accepted and graded:

·  Write between 1,000 – 1,500 words (approximately 4 – 6 pages) using Microsoft Word in APA style.

·  Use font size 12 and 1” margins.

·  Include cover page and reference page.

·  At least 80% of your paper must be original content/writing.

·  No more than 20% of your content/information may come from references.

·  Use an appropriate number of references to support your position, and defend your arguments. The following are examples of primary and secondary sources that may be used, and non-credible and opinion based sources that may not be used.

Primary sources such as, government websites (United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Census Bureau, The World Bank, etc.), peer reviewed and scholarly journals in EBSCOhost (Grantham University Online Library) and Google Scholar.

Secondary and credible sources such as, CNN Money, The Wall Street Journal, trade journals, and publications in EBSCOhost (Grantham University Online Library).

Non-credible and opinion based sources such as, Wikis, Yahoo Answers, eHow, blogs, etc. should not be used.