Four Steps of Kotter’s Change Model Implemented to “Fix Seattle" in Alaska Airlines Case

1-2 Presentation: Kotter’s Steps 1 Through 4
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Application of Kotter’s first 4 steps in the story
In the “Alaska Airlines: Navigating Change Case,” four steps of Kotter’s change model were implemented to “Fix Seattle.” First, in establishing a sense of urgency, Alaska Airlines’ senior executive committee members led by the Group CEO met in autumn 2007 to discuss the rapid decline in customer loyalty and goodwill. The CEO acknowledged that despite implementation to fix the problems of low operation, high cases of passengers’ mishandled baggage, and delayed flights, the airline was likely to experience similar problems soon, which would result in its performance slipping exponentially. The executives agreed that their customers would not tolerate the half-hazard solutions implemented. Thus, there was a need for comprehensive changes in Seattle if the airline was to survive.
Second, in building a guiding coalition, the executive leadership had to consider who his guiding coalition would be to fix the entire Seattle hub system by crossing boundaries across the silos. The team settled on Ben Minicucci, the Staff VP of Operations, to become Seattle’s VP of Operations. Ben, an experienced manager in heavy maintenance of Canada’s largest airline and previously in the Royal Military College of Canada, had a wealth of experience transforming the Seattle hub. Ben, in return, employed the help of the director of Line Maintenance, Cargo Manager, Director of Airport Customer Service, the base chief pilot, and the program manager to help him bring a turnaround in the Seattle hub.
Third, in forming a strategic vision and initiative, Ben had to figure out how to present the change to the Seattle Hub employees. Ben wanted to fix Seattle through a passion for leading, pushing for process accountability, and managing data. Therefore, he came up with a change vision involving guiding coalition members meeting every day to identify the root causes of all the problems and find solutions. In addition, the vision for attaining customer satisfaction involved keeping a scorecard of where challenges lie, going lean by organizing the workspace, and creating a cohesive working relationship across the different workgroups.
Fourth, in enlisting a volunteer army, Ben and the guiding coalition brought in the rest of Seattle Hub employees on the strategies to turn things around. The initial step was adopting report cards in every department, which tracked operations daily, identifying where challenges lie and what caused them. Consequently, the team was able to identify the primary causes of delays and develop solut...