Why MCH & Kotter
We are the first certified Kotter Training partner in the Benelux. This paper explores why this partnership makes sense and what it means for midcorp service organisations.
The Background
In August 2025, we became an official partner of Kotter Training. For us, this feels like a natural step. We have been working with John Kotter’s insights for over twenty years — in our programmes, in our approach, in how we view change.
The partnership formalises what was already there: a shared conviction that lasting change emerges when people carry the movement themselves. That leadership is about creating conditions for others to grow. That urgency springs from seeing opportunities.
This paper explains why MCH and Kotter Training strengthen each other, and what this combination means for the organisations we work with.
What we bring: Service Evolution and Change Leadership
We have been working with midcorp service organisations since 2010 — companies with 50 to 1,500 employees that provide professional services. Think of insurers, health care providers, financial advisors, consultancies.
These organisations face a dual challenge. They want to renew their service delivery: shifting from delivering products to creating meaningful impact for clients. At the same time, they need to develop the capacity to keep moving in an increasingly complex world.
We call this Service Evolution: the gradual shift from what you deliver to what value you create together with clients. This shift requires change leadership — the ability to create movement while the destination is still unfolding.
Our way of working starts with sensemaking. We ask better questions before giving answers. We explore together with our clients what is really happening, which patterns become visible, and where the energy lies. Only then does clarity about direction emerge.
We deliberately focus on transition and complex change: change where the outcome unfolds along the way, where people navigate through a period of uncertainty. Where the old remains while the new takes shape.
What Kotter Training Brings: Proven Methodology
Dr. John Kotter is one of the most influential thinkers on organisational change. More than 40 years of academic research at Harvard have led to an approach applied worldwide.
The core of Kotter’s methodology rests on three pillars.
The Dual Operating System recognises that organisations need two systems functioning side by side. The hierarchy ensures reliability and efficiency in daily operations. The network provides agility and innovation for strategic change. Both systems reinforce each other.
The 8 Accelerators are concurrent forces rather than sequential steps: creating urgency around a big opportunity, building a guiding coalition, forming a vision, mobilising a volunteer army, removing barriers, generating short-term wins, sustaining momentum, and anchoring change.
The Volunteer Army principle holds that change at scale requires people throughout the organisation who carry the movement voluntarily, from conviction. Mandated change generates compliance. Voluntary involvement creates energy.
Kotter Training makes these insights accessible through certified programmes that help leaders and teams bring change leadership into practice.
Where MCH and Kotter Training Strengthen Each Other
The combination of MCH’s approach and Kotter’s methodology creates something more substantial than the sum of its parts.
Sensemaking deepens the Big Opportunity. Kotter’s first accelerator calls for urgency around a big opportunity. But how do you find that opportunity? This question is where sensemaking comes in. By exploring together what is happening in the market and the organisation, by making patterns visible, by asking the right questions, an opportunity emerges that truly resonates. One that people feel, because they discovered it together.
Service Evolution activates the Volunteer Army. In service organisations, the people who work with clients daily are the experts. They see where service delivery falls short, where opportunities lie, and what clients truly need. The Volunteer Army principle gives them a role in the change that matches their knowledge and involvement. Service Evolution and Kotter’s network thinking naturally reinforce each other.
The European context requires translation. Kotter’s methodology was developed in an American context. The principles are universal; the application requires nuance. European organisations — particularly Dutch and Belgian ones — have a stronger tradition of consultation, worker participation, and consensus-building. We translate the methodology into this context so it aligns with how decision-making works here.
Midcorp has its own dynamics. Large corporations have organisational development departments. Small companies change organically. Midcorp organisations sit in between: large enough for complexity, agile enough for real movement. The combination of Kotter’s structured approach and MCH’s experience with this specific scale makes the partnership relevant for this audience.
What Kotter Training adds to us
The partnership brings us three things.
Structure alongside sensemaking. Our strength lies in exploring, making meaning, and finding the right questions. Kotter’s methodology offers a clear framework for moving from insight to action. The 8 Accelerators provide direction for what happens after sensemaking.
Shared language. Kotter’s concepts — Dual Operating System, Volunteer Army, Big Opportunity — are recognisable to many leaders. They have read the books, seen the TED talks. This shared language accelerates the conversation about change.
Research backing. What we have been putting into practice for 20 years now is built on decades of academic research. This research lends weight to our approach and increases our confidence in the organisations we work with.
What we add to Kotter Training
Kotter Training gains a partner that brings three things.
Depth in personal transition. Organisational change also requires individual transition — the inner process of letting go, navigating through uncertainty, and embracing a new way of working. We integrate William Bridges’ work on transitions, so the human side of change receives the attention it deserves.
Experience with European midcorp service providers. Fifteen years of working with this specific audience has taught us what works in this context. That experience makes the application of Kotter’s methodology more concrete and relevant.
Integration with service innovation. The shift from service delivery to value creation is a specific challenge that requires particular expertise. We bring that expertise, making Kotter’s change leadership methodology directly applicable to the challenges service organisations face.
Who This Is Relevant For
This partnership is relevant for midcorp service organisations in the Benelux that recognise two things.
First: the need to renew service delivery. To shift from delivering products to creating impact. To remain relevant for clients whose expectations are changing.
Second: the need to develop change capability. To be able to create movement in complex circumstances. To bring people along in a direction that unfolds as you go.
If you recognise both challenges, we invite you to explore whether this approach fits your situation. That starts with a conversation — about what is happening, what you want to achieve, and which questions occupy your mind.
We have been a certified Kotter Training partner for the Benelux since August 2025. More information: www.makechangehappen.eu/kotter