Concept
Kurt Lewin was an early pioneer in applied social-psychology— something that hits at the heart of management. Lewin’s work added a rich understanding to the field of management. He added force field analysis, a theory of human behavior (behavior is a function of the person in his or her environment—a precursor to contingency theory ala Lawrence and Lorsch), gestaltism, systems thinking (contextual analysis), action research (later expanded by Chris Agryris), leadership styles (authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faire), and managing change. 12 By all accounts, Lewin significantly influenced many aspects of modern management thinking. The persistence of VABE-based conflicts in the 21st century underlie the depth of Lewin’s insights. His history emigrating from Poland through Nazi Germany to the United States underlies and informs, I believe, his understanding of the importance of context, VABEs and human behavior.
With regard to change, Lewin proposed a simple but powerful three-step model: unfreeze, retrain, and freeze. His approach recognized the power of historical, habitual behavior. One must unfreeze that mass of habits before one could make a change. He argued that unfreezing involved dissembling the historical paradigm or mindset. The second step was, now facing a more malleable, open-minded audience, re-educating, or reshaping the person/people into a new perspective, and then third, before that new mindset evaporated, resetting it, gelling it, freezing it into a new habitual way of being and doing. Lewin used the term freezing for phase three; later pundits called it, reasonably given phase one, refreezing.
The devil is in the details, of course, of how one unfreezes, retrains, and refreezes habitual behavior. Which of the forces of influence does one use in each phase? Force? Rewards? Punishments? Level Two techniques of evidence and logic? How does one unfreeze VABEs? Refreezing probably has something to do with repetition—at all three levels.
As the speed of change increased with new technologies and information sharing globally, one could argue that Lewin’s model should be unfreeze, retrain, and retrain. To the extent that learning is critical to success in the 21st century, and we no longer have the luxury of waiting for the old paradigms to (literally) die off, refreezing takes too much time. Lewin would probably be on the leading edge of that discussion if he were still with us.
Lewin also introduced the notion of Force Field analysis—identifying and assessing the strength of forces that are for and against the intended change. With this concept, managers could strengthen the for forces and weaken the against forces.
Example
A company acquires several new subsidiaries. More than eight years later, despite new logos and management, the acquired units still refer to the
old way we used to and still should be doing things.
Ford Motor Company: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
Participants in my Power and Leadership (Level Three Leadership) week-long seminars frequently complain about the rapidity of change in their companies. “We never have time to settle in to the new changes before more changes come!” “We haven’t finished the last change and already the next one is cascading over us!” “Every day it’s something new! Stop already!”
Diagram
Challenge
1. Identify as many VABEs in your company that would have to unfreeze and change for your company to move forward as you can.
2. Do the same for yourself.
3. Describe your attitude toward the changes taking place in your company.
12 For a summary, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Lewin