Workplace Change: Kotter's 8-step change model

At the time the corporation tried to replace human labor in customer service with artificial intelligence, I had to deal with significant change at work. A quick adjustment in customer service was necessary due to the company's rising competition on the global market. Human labor appeared to be excessively slow to manage 24/7 calls from clients and respond to chat requests. In order to replace the workers in that industry, the corporation had to use amiable robots that replicate human speaking patterns. The automated customer service could respond immediately to discussions from clients asking simple queries and providing answers. The company’s process of migration to digital customer service system followed John Kotter’s 8-step change model (“Mind Tools Editorial Team”).

The change followed various Kotter’s steps such as creating urgency, forming and communicating a vision, removing obstacles, launching the proposed change, and anchoring it to the corporate culture (“Mind Tools Editorial Team”). The articulated visions for changes worked very well for the company since all the workers agreed with the use of the automated machines under their supervision. Anchoring the changes in the corporate culture also worked for the company because the current leaders and new leaders implemented the change in every aspect of the organization.

If I were the HR playing a role in leading this change, I would create short-term goals to help in evaluating the progress and success of the enacted change. I would also provide workers whose positions have been replaced by the artificial intelligence with other job opportunities to inhibit any obstacle they might cause when implementing the change. Therefore, change is inevitable for every company but it can only be successful if it follows John Kotter’s 8-steps change model.

Work Cited

Mind Tools Editorial Team. “Kotter's 8-step change model: Implementing change powerfully and successfully.” MindTools.com, 2011, https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_82.htm. Accessed 2 Aug. 2017.