The recipient of a PhD in nursing from the University of Washington, Devon Berry is an experienced health care professional who spent four years overseeing the Oregon Health & Science University School of Nursing as executive associate dean. Devon Berry’s leadership style is informed by his education, experience, and several books, one of which is Leading Change by Dr. John Kotter.
In his book, Dr. Kotter explores reasons why organizations are unsuccessful in their efforts to change. Placing particular responsibility on the leader, he presents an eight-step process with examples of how to implement such change. The process is derived from his own experiences, which include more than 40 years of observing leaders and organizations attempting to execute transformational strategies. While it was originally laid out in Leading Change, it has since been refined in Accelerate, which was published in 2014.
The first step of the process is to create a sense of urgency via a declaration or opportunity statement that stresses the importance of acting immediately. From there, leaders need to establish a guiding coalition to carry out activities; form a strategic vision; enlist a volunteer army; and remove barriers like inefficient or unproductive processes.
The sixth step in the process prompts leaders and teams to celebrate short-term victories. These milestones not only help track progress, but can invigorate and energize workers and volunteers to see that their efforts are making a difference. The final two steps are to sustain acceleration and institute change.
Devon Berry 