Framework library · Change management
Lewin's change model
Lewin saw a group's behaviour as held at its current level by a balance of forces for and against change. Changing it means first unsettling that balance, then moving to a new level, then making the new level stable. The model insists on the first and last stages, which project plans tend to skip: a move made before people have let go of the old way, or left without anything to hold it, slides back.
Use it when
- You need a simple frame to show leaders why a change needs preparation before launch and support after it.
- A previous change slid back to the old way within months and you want to see which stage failed.
- The change is a single, bounded move from one way of working to another, such as merging operations centres or retiring a tool.
Avoid it when
- There is no stable end state to refreeze into because the organisation changes continuously. Treat each step as something to stabilise just long enough to build on, or use Kotter's accelerators.
- You need a detailed plan. Three stages is a frame, not a plan. Build the plan with a transformation roadmap or Kotter's eight steps.
- You need to know which forces matter most. Use force field analysis, which comes from the same body of Lewin's work, to list and weigh them.
How to run it
Describe the old and new behaviour
Say what people do now and what they will do afterwards, in terms you could observe: "engineers work every alarm by hand" becomes "engineers handle only the incidents the system cannot resolve".
Find what holds the old way in place
Habits, measures, tools, status and the norms of the group. A force field analysis is the quickest way to list them.
Unfreeze with evidence and safety
Show people that the current way is failing, using their own data, and make it safe to say so. Where you can, let the group decide how it will change; a group's own decision holds better than an instruction.
Move with support and a fixed end to the old way
Run the new way with help on hand, for a set period, and name the date the old way stops.
Refreeze by changing what keeps behaviour in place
Update measures, procedures, roles and tools so the new way is the easy way. Remove the old tool, form or meeting; if it is still there, people will go back to it.
Check for slipping back
Look again three and six months after the move. Drift back to the old way is the commonest failure and the easiest to miss.
Work through it
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Mistakes to avoid
- Starting with the move. A new way announced before unfreezing gets agreement in meetings and the old way in practice.
- Unfreezing by fear alone. Pressure without a credible way forward raises resistance rather than readiness.
- Treating refreezing as rigidity. The aim is stability long enough for the new way to become normal, not a ban on further change.
- Presenting the three steps as Lewin's finished method. They are a later simplification of his ideas; use them as a frame and say so if challenged.
Where it comes from
Kurt Lewin, "Frontiers in Group Dynamics", Human Relations 1(1), 1947, which described a successful change as unfreezing the present level, moving to a new level and freezing group life there. Cummings, Bridgman and Brown (Human Relations, 2016) argue that the three-step model as usually taught was assembled by others after Lewin's death in 1947; Burnes (Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 2020) disputes this. Source.
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