The Pitfalls of Blindly Applying Kurt Lewin's Change Model

Join us, and Prof. Stephen Cummings, for Part 2 of this discussion on Lewin's classic article. Many working in the change management arena–scholars and practitioners alike–have likely heard of Kurt Lewin’s three main phases of organizational change: (1) unfreezing, (2) moving, and (3) freezing (also commonly referred to as re-freezing). And indeed, Kurt Lewin presented those phases in his 1947 article “Frontiers in group dynamics: Concept, method and reality in social science; social equilibria and social change.” But as explained by our special guest Stephen Cummings from the University of Wellington, New Zealand, this three-phased approach was not actually an important finding or outcome of the article. Without offering any empirical support or developing much detail into the phases, Lewin was simply offering ideas for further exploration. Yet these phases have been adapted into numerous change management models available in business literature.