What it shows
Unfreezing, changing and refreezing, the change process usually attributed to Kurt Lewin, drawn as three stages in order. Under each name is the word Lewin used in 1947 (unfreezing, moving, freezing) and a one-line description.
The attribution is disputed. Cummings, Bridgman and Brown (2016) argue that Lewin never developed a three-step model and that it took shape after his death in 1947. The labels came later: “changing” from Schein (1961, as cited in Cummings et al., 2016), who replaced Lewin’s “moving”, and “refreezing”, as far as Cummings et al. can tell, from Festinger (1950, as cited in Cummings et al., 2016).
One example runs through all three stages: Northfield Coffee Roasters, a fictional specialty roaster, moving its four cafes from paper order tickets to tablet ordering.
How to read it
Unfreezing: managers show staff that paper tickets cause about three mixed-up orders a day in each cafe.
Changing: tablets go into all four cafes, and baristas train in two one-hour sessions.
Refreezing: the paper pads are removed and the tablet steps join the opening checklist.
The three stages
- Unfreezing (Lewin: unfreezing): unsettle the current way so people are ready to change.
- Changing (Lewin: moving): move to the new way, through what is often a period of confusion and transition.
- Refreezing (Lewin: freezing): stabilize the new way until it is normal.
Ways to use it in teaching
Pair the diagram with Cummings, Bridgman and Brown (2016) and ask students how a short passage became a foundational model.
Ask students to map a change in their own workplace onto the three stages, then name what the stages leave out.
Compare it with Kotter’s (1995) eight steps. His first error is “not establishing a great enough sense of urgency”: is that unfreezing under another name, and what do his other seven steps add?
The tablets go into the four cafes that the VRIO path rates as only competitive parity. Ask whether a change that makes the cafes run better can move them up the path, or only keep them level with rivals.
Sources
- Change management. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 19, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_management
- Cummings, S., Bridgman, T., & Brown, K. G. (2016). Unfreezing change as three steps: Rethinking Kurt Lewin’s legacy for change management. Human Relations, 69(1), 33–60. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726715577707
- Kotter, J. P. (1995). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review, 73(2), 59–67. https://hbr.org/1995/05/leading-change-why-transformation-efforts-fail-2
- Kurt Lewin. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 19, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Lewin
- Lewin, K. (1947). Frontiers in group dynamics. Human Relations, 1(1), 5–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872674700100103
