What is the three-step process that managers use to make sense of their changing environments?

Change is a common thread that runs through all businesses regardless of size, industry and age. The world changes fast and organizations must change quickly, too. Organizations that handle change well thrive, whilst those that do not may struggle to survive.

Índice Show

Understanding Lewin's Change Management Model
Stage 1: Unfreeze
Stage 2: Change
Stage 3: Refreeze
What is the 3 Stage Model of Change?
The 3 Stages of Change
Step 1: Unfreeze
Step 2: Change
Step 3: Refreeze
Additional resources

The concept of "change management" is a familiar one in most businesses today. But how businesses manage change (and how successful they are at it) varies enormously depending on the nature of the business, the change and the people involved. And a key part of this depends on how well people within it understand the change process.

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One of the cornerstone models for understanding organizational change was developed by Kurt Lewin back in the 1940s, and still holds true today. His model is known as Unfreeze – Change – Refreeze, which refers to the three-stage process of change that he describes. Lewin, a physicist as well as a social scientist, explained organizational change using the analogy of changing the shape of a block of ice.

Understanding Lewin's Change Management Model

If you have a large cube of ice but realize that what you want is a cone of ice, what do you do? First you must melt the ice to make it amenable to change (unfreeze). Then you must mold the iced water into the shape you want (change). Finally, you must solidify the new shape (refreeze).

By looking at change as a process with distinct stages, you can prepare yourself for what is coming and make a plan to manage the transition – looking before you leap, so to speak. All too often, people go into change blindly, causing much unnecessary turmoil and chaos.

To begin any successful change process, you must first start by understanding why the change must take place. As Lewin put it, "Motivation for change must be generated before change can occur. One must be helped to re-examine many cherished assumptions about oneself and one's relations to others." This is the unfreezing stage from which change begins.

Stage 1: Unfreeze

This first stage of change involves preparing the organization to accept that change is necessary, which involves breaking down the existing status quo before you can build up a new way of operating.

Key to this is developing a compelling message showing why the existing way of doing things cannot continue. This is easiest to frame when you can point to tangible factors such as declining sales figures, poor financial results, worrying customer satisfaction surveys, for example. Our article, Beckhard and Harris' Change Equation, explores a useful tool for helping your team to understand why change is necessary.

This first part of the change process is usually the most difficult and stressful. When you start cutting down the "way things are done," you put everyone and everything off balance.

You may evoke strong reactions in people, and that's exactly what needs to be done to build a strong motivation to seek out a new equilibrium. Without this motivation, you won't get the buy-in and participation necessary to effect any meaningful change.

Here are some practical steps you can take to "melt the ice" of the Unfreeze stage:

Determine what needs to change by surveying your team or organization to understand the current state.
Understand why change has to take place.
Use Stakeholder Analysis and Stakeholder Management to identify and win the support of key people within the organization.
Frame the issue as one of organization-wide importance.
Create a compelling message about why change has to occur.
Use your vision and strategy as supporting evidence.
Communicate the vision in terms of the change required.
Emphasize the "why."
Remain open to employee concerns and address them in terms of the need to change.

Stage 2: Change

After the uncertainty created in the unfreeze stage, the change stage is where people begin to resolve their uncertainty and look for new ways to do things. People start to believe and act in ways that support the new direction.

The transition from unfreeze to change does not happen overnight: people take time to embrace the new direction and participate proactively in the change. A related change model, the Change Curve, focuses on the specific issue of personal transitions in a changing environment and is useful for understanding this aspect in more detail.

In order to accept the change and contribute to making it successful, people need to understand how it will benefit them. Not everyone will fall in line just because the change is necessary and will benefit the company. This is a common assumption and a pitfall that should be avoided.

Unfortunately, some people will genuinely disadvantaged by change, particularly those who benefit strongly from the status quo. Others may take a long time to recognize the benefits that change brings. You need to foresee and manage these situations. Our article, Immunity to Change, can help you to do this.

Time and communication are the two keys to the changes occurring successfully. People need time to understand the changes, and they also need to feel highly connected to the organization throughout the transition period. When you are managing change, this can require a great deal of time and effort, and hands-on management is usually the best approach.

So, what steps can you take to ease the Change stage?

For a start, it's important that you communicate clearly and often and throughout the planning and implementation of the changes. Remember to describe the benefits, explain exactly how the changes will affect everyone, and prepare everyone for what is coming.

Also, make sure that you stay ahead of and dispel any rumors. That means answering questions openly and honestly, dealing with problems immediately, and relating the need for change back to operational necessities.

You can also empower your people by involving them in the process, where appropriate. Also, have line managers provide day-to-day direction. Where possible, generate short-term wins to reinforce the change.

Stage 3: Refreeze

When the changes are taking shape and people have embraced the new ways of working, the organization is ready to refreeze. The outward signs of the refreeze are a stable organization chart, consistent job descriptions, and so on.

The refreeze stage also needs to help people and the organization to internalize or institutionalize the changes. This means making sure that the changes are used all the time, and that they are incorporated into everyday business. With a new sense of stability, employees feel confident and comfortable with the new ways of working.

The rationale for creating a new sense of stability in our ever-changing world is often questioned. Even though change is a constant in many organizations, this refreezing stage is still important. Without it, employees get caught in a transition trap where they aren't sure how things should be done, so nothing ever gets done to full capacity.

In the absence of a new frozen state, it is very difficult to tackle the next change initiative effectively. How do you go about convincing people that something needs changing if you haven't allowed the most recent changes to sink in? Change will be perceived as change for change's sake, and the motivation required to implement new changes simply won't be there.

As part of the refreezing process, make sure that you celebrate the success of the change – this helps people to find closure, thanks them for enduring a painful time, and helps them believe that future change will be successful.

Here are some steps you can take to anchor the changes into your organization's or team's culture:

Identity what supports the change.
Identify barriers to sustaining change.
Ensure leadership support.
Create a reward system.
Establish feedback systems.
Adapt the organizational structure as necessary.
Keep everyone informed and supported.
Celebrate your success!

Lewin's Change Management Model is a simple and easy-to-understand framework for managing change.

By recognizing these three distinct stages of change, you can plan to implement the change required. You start by creating the motivation to change (unfreeze). You move through the change process by promoting effective communications and empowering people to embrace new ways of working (change). And the process ends when you return the organization to a sense of stability (refreeze), which is so necessary for creating the confidence from which to embark on the next, inevitable change.

Change behavior—how humans accept, embrace, and perform change—is the core of modern change management. ITSM frameworks incorporate various approaches to change management, but one started it all: Kurt Lewin’s 3 Stage Model of Change.

Initially a popular concept, current ITSM thinking criticizes Lewin’s model for being too simplistic and abstract to manage change in a real way. In today’s speedy, complex, and dynamic landscape of enterprise IT, the three-step model provides limited actionable guidance.

Still, understanding these steps provides an essential view into change management, so let’s have a look.

What is the 3 Stage Model of Change?

A leader in change management, Kurt Lewin was a German-American social psychologist in the early 20th century. Among the first to research group dynamics and organizational development, Lewin developed the 3 Stage Model of Change in order to evaluate two areas:

The change process in organizational environments
How the status-quo could be challenged to realize effective changes

Lewin proposed that the behavior of any individual in response to a proposed change is a function of group behavior. Any interaction or force affecting the group structure also affects the individual’s behavior and capacity to change. Therefore, the group environment, or ‘field’, must be considered in the change process.

The 3 Stage Model of Change describes status-quo as the present situation, but a change process—a proposed change—should then evolve into a future desired state. To understand group behavior, and hence the behavior of individual group members during the change process, we must evaluate the totality and complexity of the field. This is also known as Field Theory, which is widely used to develop change models including Lewin’s 3 Stage Model.

Source

The 3 Stages of Change

Let’s look at how Lewin’s three-step model describes the nature of change, its implementation, and common challenges:

Step 1: Unfreeze

Lewin identifies human behavior, with respect to change, as a quasi-stationary equilibrium state. This state is a mindset, a mental and physical capacity that can be almost absolutely reached, but it is initially situated so that the mind can evolve without actually attaining that capacity. For example, a contagious disease can spread rapidly in a population and resist initial measures to contain the escalation. Eventually, through medical advancement, the disease can be treated and virtually disappear from the population.

Lewin argues that change follows similar resistance, but group forces (the field) prevent individuals from embracing this change. Therefore, we must agitate the equilibrium state in order to instigate a behavior that is open to change. Lewin suggests that an emotional stir-up may disturb the group dynamics and forces associated with self-righteousness among the individual group members. Certainly, there are a variety of ways to shake up the present status-quo, and you’ll want to consider whether you need change in an individual or, as in a company, amongst a group of people.

Let’s consider the process of preparing a meal. The first change, before anything else can happen, is to “unfreeze” foods—preparing them for change, whether they’re frozen and require thawing, or raw food requiring washing. Lewin’s 3 Step Model believes that human change follows a similar philosophy, so you must first unfreeze the status-quo before you may implement organizational change.

Though not formally part of Lewin’s model, actions within this Unfreeze stage may include:

Determining what needs to change.
- Survey your company.
- Understand why change is necessary.
Ensuring support from management and the C-suite.
- Talk with stakeholders to obtain support.
- Frame your issue as one that positively impacts the entire company.
Creating the need for change.
- Market a compelling message about why change is best.
- Communicate the change using your long-term vision.

Step 2: Change

Once you’ve “unfrozen” the status quo, you may begin to implement your change. Organizational change in particular is notoriously complex, so executing a well-planned change process does not guarantee predictable results. Therefore, you must prepare a variety of change options, from the planned change process to trial-and-error. With each attempt at change, examine what worked, what didn’t, what parts were resistant, etc.

During this evaluation process, there are two important drivers of successful and long-term effectiveness of the change implementation process: information flow and leadership.

Information flow refers to sharing information across multiple levels of the organizational hierarchy, making available a variety of skills and expertise, and coordinating problem solving across the company.
Leadership is defined as the influence of certain individuals in the group to achieve common goals. A well-planned change process requires defining a vision and motivation.

The iterative approach is also necessary to sustain a change. According to Lewin, a change left without adequate reinforcement may be short-lived and therefore fail to meet the objectives of a change process.

During the Change phase, companies should:

Communicate widely and clearly about the planned implementation, benefits, and who is affected. Answer questions, clarify misunderstandings, and dispel rumors.
Promote and empower action. Encourage employees to get involved proactively with the change, and support managers in providing daily and weekly direction to staff.
Involve others as much as possible. These easy wins can accumulate into larger wins, and working with more people can help you navigate various stakeholders.

Step 3: Refreeze

The purpose of the final step—refreezing—is to sustain the change you’ve enacted. The goal is for the people involved to consider this new state as the new status-quo, so they no longer resist forces that are trying to implement the change. The group norms, activities, strategies, and processes are transformed per the new state.

Without appropriate steps that sustain and reinforce the change, the previously dominant behavior tends to reassert itself. You’ll need to consider both formal and informal mechanisms to implement and freeze these new changes. Consider one or more steps or actions that can be strong enough to counter the cumulative effect of all resistive forces to the change—these stronger steps help ensure the new change will prevail and become “the new normal”.

In the Refreeze phase, companies should do the following:

Tie the new changes into the culture by identifying change supports and change barriers.
Develop and promote ways to sustain the change long-term. Consider:
- Ensuring leadership and management support and adapting organizational structure when necessary.
- Establishing feedback processes.
- Creating a rewards system.
Offer training, support, and communication for both the short- and long-term. Promote both formal and informal methods, and remember the various ways that employees learn.
Celebrate success!

Lewin’s 3 Stage Model of Change provides an intuitive and fundamental understanding of how changes occur, in context of the social behaviors observed at an individual and collective level within a group. Since the theory was first introduced in 1951, change management has taken both supportive and opposing directions. This is a vital reminder: when modern-day change management frameworks are not working for specific use cases and business needs, consider these fundamentals of understanding social behavior in light of change.