Guiding Coalition

Change doesn't happen by org chart. It happens through a small group of people with the credibility and energy to pull others forward.

A guiding coalition is the group of people who actually make change happen. John P. Kotter identified it as one of the earliest and most critical steps in any transformation: assemble a team with enough positional power, expertise, credibility, and leadership to drive the effort. A single executive sponsor isn’t enough. Neither is a committee of people who were assigned rather than enrolled. Stakeholder Mapping is the activity we use to identify who belongs in the coalition and what it takes to enroll them.

Sustaining the coalition requires Relentless Communication. People drift. Priorities compete. The coalition stays cohesive only when the Change Vision is reinforced constantly and when members see real progress through Quick Wins. We use our Framing activity to drive this alignment explicitly.

Resources

• John P. Kotter, “Leading Change” (Harvard Business Review Press, 1996)
• Stakeholder Mapping — the activity for mapping who’s Driving, Enrolled, Impacted, and Informed
• Relentless Communication — how to keep the coalition aligned