IPSGA Transformation

I. Introduction We dread it, we worry about it, and yet we can’t avoid it. That’s the way many people view major transformations within organizations. Despite this, change is one of the most crucial components of running a successful organization, and great leaders are generally known for their ability to adapt to difficult changes. Prof. John Kotter of Harvard University proposed a theory on why organizational transformation is so often prone to failure. In this paper, I will examine Kotter’s work and apply it to a specific situation in my organizational experience with IPFW’s student government association. By applying it to this situation, the strengths of Kotter’s principles can be easily identified. However, it also becomes apparent that …show more content…
Even though everyone knew that the transformation was happening, there were still a few crucial mistakes that hindered the transition from IPSGA to SGA. Many of the issues that arose from the situation where ultimately a result of a lack of urgency from the executive officers and other leadership positions. For example, while we knew all semester that we needed to make major changes to the student government constitution, failure to make changes in committee and bring the amendments to senate on time resulted in the constitution not being brought to the senate floor until the final meeting of the year. Instead of being able to make necessary adjustments to the new SGA constitution, we had to pass a subpar constitution that was not as strong as it could have been. In addition, the “guiding coalition”, or in this case, the executive officers, did not build momentum for transformation; on the contrary, some of the IPSGA leaders began coasting to the end of the school year instead of inciting change. Because of a lack of effort from a few (but not all) individuals, the vision of the future of SGA was not well communicated to the newer, more enthusiastic members of senate like me, and as a result, the transition into a new era of student government at PFW went …show more content…
While this procedure was necessary in maintaining the integrity of checks and balances in the system, it caused long term issues in fostering a transformational environment. We did a decent job at setting ourselves up for some short term wins throughout the semester, which helped us avoid this error proposed by Kotter, but unfortunately, our short term victories came at the expense of losing sight of the long term vision. We failed to see that we were running out of time to accomplish our ultimate goal. Looking ahead to the future, I hope that SGA can start to build a stronger organizational culture to better face transformations in the future and continue to represent and advocate for the student body and all student