Change is a complex process, but many organizational changes follow a common process. The idea to develop a model around this process was first pursued by sociologist Kurt Lewin. Lewin uses the image of an ice cube to explain how to change an organization: unfreeze-change-refreeze.

Unfreeze. Before any change can occur, people must be change ready. Lewin calls unfreezing the process where people begin to realize the need for change and prepare accordingly. Impulsive leaders wrongly believe they must begin by casting a new vision of the changed community. However, these visions will not be received until the frozen followers have thawed to the idea of change.

Change. After people are change ready, the real work of change begins. This stage of the model does not happen immediately; it can take a long time. People are staring down an uncertain road, and need to be reminded how following this road will ultimately benefit them and the organization. Leaders must communicate frequently and give people time to let that communication internalize.

Freeze. Often after a change effort, it’s tempting to stop there and declare victory. However, Lewin argued that in order to make any change permanent, it must be made part of the organization’s culture. The refreezing stage allows people to plant roots and grow accustomed to the way things will be. Leaders can promote refreezing by helping followers see the connection between new behaviors and new success and by celebrating the people who helped bring about that success.

Lewin’s model is a simple approach to a complex issue, and as such is bound to be lacking certain details. However, Lewin laid a foundation for future change management theories and this foundation is apparent in the writings of more modern theorists.

Most people view organizational change the same way they view a clown standing down the street from them.

It may be a positive experience, but we’d rather it be someone else’s positive experience.

Despite our best efforts, the world continues to change and grow. In order to remain competitive, organizations need change alongside their environment. Changing certain parts of an organization are easy, but changing people is hard.

Most people try to avoid the clown.

For over fifty years, organizations have looked for help in leading people through change. They relied on thought leaders and researchers for help making sense of the mental processes people use to understand and cope with their changing roles. These models can help people become more willing and able to embrace change. At any level in the organization, leaders will be involved in leading change.

So leaders must meet the clown.

In the series, we’ll get up close and personal with change and discusses the various models for leading your organization through changing, starting with the godfather of organizational change, Kurt Lewin.

LeaderLab is partnering with organizational scholars to gather research on the importance of building ethical climates. If you have 10 minutes, please help our research by taking a brief survey.

Click Here to Help Our Research.

Too often leaders are unsure of just how to unfreeze an organization and create change ready followers. Many leaders start by casting a grand vision of what the new organization looks like. However, followers, still frozen in their ways, do not receive this new vision because they have yet to see why change is necessary. John Kotter’s (1996) book leading change presents an eight-step model for facilitating change that closely follows Lewin’s (1951) three phases model. If we overlay these two models, we see the first three stages of Kotter’s model providing insight on how to unfreeze an organization. These steps are as follows:

1. Create urgency. Leaders to help the organization see that it can not continue down the same old road.
2. Form a powerful coalition. In order to lead change, leaders at the top must form a team of change champions who hold status from a variety of sources.
3. Create a vision for change. Once the organization has a sense of urgency, the coalition can begin to propose a solution to the organization that will inspire them to work toward change.

Notice that step three is create a vision, step four is to communicate that vision. How often do we hear of a new CEO who enters intensely sharing a vision and who is fired just as intensely. If we want successful change, we must make followers change ready by creating this sense of urgency, getting a powerful team of champions together and writing that vision as a team.

Kotter, J. P. (1996) Leading change. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Lewin, K. (1951). Field Theory in Social Science. New York, NY: Harper & Row.

When leading change in organizations, the primary role for leadership is to unbalance the force. Leaders need to influence followers to see the reasons to change, strengthen the helping forces in the process. If leaders fail to unbalance the force, the change effort simply will not occur.

Lewin, K. (1951). Field Theory in Social Science. New York, NY: Harper & Row.

The unfreezing stage involved overcoming inertia and dismantling the existing “mind set.” The defense mechanisms of individuals in the organization have to be bypassed and people need to be made change-ready. The change stage is a period of confusion and transition, where the old ways are being challenged and individuals do not have a clear picture as to what the new ways will look like. In the freezing stage (often mislabeled the refreezing stage), the changes are solidified and a new mindset crystallizes, bringing everyone’s comfort level back to where it was.

The three-stage model developed by Lewin has continued to be discussed and built upon. Most notably, John Kotter, a professor at Harvard Business School, developed his own model for leading change that involved eight steps or actions to be taken. These steps correlate nicely with Lewin’s three-stages and strengthen the foundation Lewin created.