OL 663 Milestone One Guidelines and Rubric
In the final project, you will be developing a change plan for the “Alaska Airlines: Navigating Change.” In The Heart of Change Field Guide: Tools and Tactics for
Leading Change in Your Organization, Cohen explains what is required from the leader and other parts of the organization to deliver Kotter’s steps successfully
as a change intervention.
Review the case study “Alaska Airlines: Navigating Change” and then complete the following: (a) State what actually occurred in the case regarding Kotter’s first
two steps of establishing a sense of urgency and creating the guiding team in a change effort and (b) reflect on what you think should have been done in the
change effort regarding those two steps. State your reflection as recommendations to implement Kotter’s steps 1 and 2.
This milestone will help you build Section I parts A and B of your final project.
A. Create Urgency
1. Describe a plan to create urgency within the organization and convince stakeholders that this change needs to take place.
2. What processes currently exist for implementing change? How will these processes need to be updated for the proposed change?
3. Describe the strategy you will use to get support from your employees. How will this strategy be effective?
B. Build a Guiding Coalition
1. Identify who should be involved in this guiding coalition. Provide rationale for each choice. Kotter likes 50% leaders and 50% managers with
experience, while others prefer the composition to be 33% leaders, 33% managers, and 33% informal leaders, but you can assemble the guiding
coalition as you see fit.
2. Determine steps you can take to ensure commitment from those involved. Describe those steps.
Guidelines for Submission: Your paper must be submitted as a 3–6-page Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, oneinch margins, and at least three sources cited in APA format.
Critical Elements Exemplary (100%) Proficient (90%) Needs Improvement (70%) Not Evident (0%) Value
Change Plan: Urgency Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
description is exceptionally
clear and contextualized
Describes a plan to create
urgency within the organization
and convince stakeholders that
the change needs to take place
Describes a plan to create
urgency within the organization
and convince stakeholders that
the change needs to take place,
but plan is misaligned with the
problem
Does not describe a plan to
create urgency within the
organization
20
Change Plan:
Processes
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
description is well supported
with examples
Identifies current processes for
implementing change and
describes how processes will
need to be updated for
proposed change
Identifies current processes for
implementing change, but does
not describe how processes will
need to be updated for
proposed change
Does not identify current
processes for implementing
change
20
Change Plan: Support Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
description is exceptionally
clear and contextualized
Describes a strategy to gain
support from employees and
describes how the strategy will
be effective
Describes a strategy to gain
support from employees, but
does not describe how the
strategy will be effective
Does not describe a strategy to
gain support from employees
20
Change Plan: Guiding
Coalition
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
rationale demonstrates a
nuanced understanding of the
roles involved in a coalition
Identifies who should be
involved in the guiding coalition
and provides rationale for each
choice
Identifies who should be
involved in the guiding
coalition, but does not provide
rationale for each choice
Does not identify who should
be involved in the guiding
coalition
20
Change Plan:
Commitment
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
description is exceptionally
clear and contextualized
Determines steps for ensuring
commitment from those
involved and describes each
step
Determines steps for ensuring
commitment from those
involved, but does not describe
each step
Does not determine steps for
ensuring commitment
20
Total 100%
