Most people in the community-building game don’t think of themselves as “change managers.” Most of us are not sitting in corner offices with PowerPoint decks and consultants.
We’re generally sitting in church basements, nonprofit board meetings, food pantries, living rooms, and half-finished Slack threads (maybe that last one is just me). And we’re trying to solve real-life problems with limited money, part-time volunteers, and whatever goodwill we can talk people out of.
And yet.
What we are trying to do is nothing short of cultural change.
- We are asking people to rethink value.
- To rethink reciprocity.
- To rethink what “success” looks like.
- To rethink the idea that every problem requires money, institutions, or permission.
That’s hard work. Very hard work, in fact. And if we’re honest, most community efforts don’t fail because the idea was wrong. They fail because the change was never fully led. Or, at least, not led in the way it should have been.
This is why John Kotter’s Leading Change matters so much for people like us… and I must thank a friend of mine for telling me about it.
Full disclosure. I’ve not yet read the book, but I have been doing some research about it, thank you internet – and I’m convinced that I must have been channeling him over these last few years. Or maybe it’s just one of those instances of “great minds think alike”. Anyway…
Kotter talks about why change fails even when people mean well, and what has to happen if you want change to actually stick.
He concludes that most change efforts collapse because leaders underestimate how deeply humans cling to the familiar.
I think we’ve all learned that lesson the hard way. You can have the best idea in the world. A time bank. A mutual support network. A community health initiative. A free community exchange. A shared resource model. People will nod. They will have no shortage of praise for how wonderful it all is.
And then… nothing. “Crickets”, as my friend Anthony likes to say.
Kotter calls this complacency. Not laziness, exactly. Just the quiet gravitational pull of the way things already are. Have always been. Myself, I’ve taken to calling it apathy – and have written about it not a few times.
One of the most useful ideas though, is the insistence that urgency must come first. Not panic. Not fear-mongering. But a shared understanding that doing nothing has a cost.
In community work, we often shy away from urgency because we don’t want to sound dramatic or suspect. But the truth is, crumbling government structures, chaotic social systems, fragmented communities, isolated elders, burned-out caregivers, and fragile nonprofits are already emergencies.
Pretending otherwise doesn’t make us noble. It makes us ineffectual.
Kotter also emphasizes that no meaningful change is led alone. This matters deeply in grassroots spaces, where founders often burn themselves out trying to carry everything on their own shoulders. But, we must learn to build coalitions. Real coalitions.
And building an effective coalition can’t mean hierarchy or ego. It has to mean trust and shared ownership. It has to mean identifying the people who quietly hold influence and inviting them into the work early, honestly, and with respect.
Another reason this book vibes with community builders is its focus on vision. Not mission statements. Not buzzwords. Vision as in: can people see themselves in what you’re building? Can they explain it to a neighbor? Can they feel where it’s going?
If they can’t, they won’t move.
Kotter seems relentless about communication, and rightly so. Change doesn’t happen because you said the thing once. Or wrote it on a website. Or mentioned it at a meeting. It happens because the idea becomes familiar, then normal, then expected.
Community movements often assume shared understanding far too early. The importance of communication cannot be underestimated.
Perhaps most important for those of us trying to build alternative systems is Kotter’s insistence on small wins. We tend to think in terms of grand transformation. But people trust change when they can see it working. One neighbor helped. One ride shared. One family supported. One problem solved. These moments are not distractions from the vision. They’re the proof of it.
In a past essay I said that nothing motivates like success. Keeping volunteers motivated is one of the hardest jobs, and giving them small successes, things to be proud of, is crucial in keeping the momentum alive.
Finally, Kotter hits where community builders already know the truth: change isn’t real until it becomes culture – the new normal, so to speak. Until it survives leadership transitions, funding shifts, and the loss of early champions.
This is the real proof of concept.
Leading Change gives language and structure to instincts many of us already have, but haven’t fully articulated. It doesn’t replace our compassion, humility, or lived experience. It sharpens it. It helps us to see why good ideas stall, and how to give them a fighting chance.
If you care about rebuilding community. If you believe we need systems rooted in reciprocity rather than extraction. If you’re tired of watching promising efforts fade because momentum was lost.
This book is worth your time.
Not because it tells you what to build. But because it helps you understand how change actually moves through people.
And people, inconvenient as it may be, are still the point.
Join us in making the world a better place. You’ll be glad that you did.
Cheers, friends.