About
ConsultancyWorking alongside your leaders on a change across the organisationFacilitationSessions that help leadership teams and teams think and decide togetherCoachingOne-to-one support for leaders and managersTrainingIn-house courses that build skills across your teamsWorkshopsDays for teams, leadership teams and boards, in person or onlineProgrammesLonger programmes built around any of the areas we work in
Culture & DirectionCulture ChangeOrganisational PurposeStrategic Alignment
Structure & OperationsPost-Merger IntegrationOrganisational RestructuringOperational EffectivenessOrganisational Design
Change & DevelopmentChange ManagementEmployee ExperienceCapacity BuildingOrganisational Development
Service & ExperienceCustomer ExperienceService DesignScaling Operations
Experience
Tools LibraryModels and frameworks explained, with free PDF templatesArticlesOur writing on organisations, leadership and changeGuides and primersGuides to download, including Thinking in Ecosystems
Organisational health diagnosticStates of VitalityWe survey your whole organisation and show you where it is strong and where it is strugglingThe EMERGENT FrameworkOur model of what makes an organisation healthy
Our other sitesMoresapien - biases, fallacies and mental models (opens in a new tab)Fieldmarks - systems thinking (opens in a new tab)Theory of Change Toolkit (opens in a new tab)
Get in touch
Tools/Kotter's 8 Step Change Model/Template

Kotter's 8 Step Change Model - Free Template

A free PDF of Kotter's 8 Step Change Model: all eight steps on one page as a map of what has to be true, and a one-page summary of how to use it to find where a change has stalled and what to do next.

Based on our full guide to Kotter's 8 Step Change Model.

Free Kotter's 8 Step Change Model template - downloadable PDF

Get this PDF template

Fill in your details and download the PDF straight away.

What's in this Kotter's 8 Step Change Model template

The eight steps on one page, grouped into three stages - build the will to change, turn will into action, make it permanent - with a line on what each step needs.

A one-page summary: when to use the model, what each step asks of you, how to apply it - starting with an honest look at which of the eight you have actually done - and the traps to watch for, like declaring victory at the first plateau. Most change efforts find they're further back in the sequence than they thought - that finding alone is usually worth the session.

It's a PDF, so you can print it for a workshop wall or work through it on screen with your team.

Tips for using it

Run it as a campaign-planning session with the people leading the change, not as a solo desk exercise. Before planning anything new, go through the eight steps and ask honestly which ones you have actually done, then start wherever the earliest gap is - not where the programme plan says you should be. Look hard at Step 1 in particular; most change efforts underinvest in urgency and pay for it at every later step.

Pressure-test the guiding coalition: do you have the right mix of influence and credibility, not just the most senior people? Then come back to the eight steps every few months, because the step that needs attention moves as the campaign progresses.