Change Management Models: Lewin, Kotter, ADKAR and More

The change management models most managers use are Lewin's unfreeze, change, refreeze; Kotter's 8 steps; Prosci's ADKAR; and the change curve adapted from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's work on dying and grief. Lewin and Kotter help you plan the organisation's side of a change. ADKAR and the change curve help you understand how each person on your team gets there.

None of them is a recipe. Each is a way of spotting what you've missed.

Lewin: unfreeze, change, refreeze

Kurt Lewin was a social psychologist who wrote in the 1940s about group habits being "unfrozen", moved and "frozen" again at a new level. Management writers later turned this into the three-step model found in most textbooks:

• Unfreeze: help people see why the current way of working has to change.
• Change: move to the new way, with information, support and practice.
• Refreeze: make the new way stick through routines, records and checks.

One caveat worth knowing. A 2016 paper in the journal Human Relations by Stephen Cummings, Todd Bridgman and Kenneth Brown argues that Lewin never set out a three-step model himself, and that it took shape after his death. The simple version is still useful as a reminder that change has a before and an after, not just a launch day.

In a care home: say you're moving from paper care notes to a digital care record. Unfreezing means showing staff what's wrong with the current notes: missing entries and handwriting nobody can read at 3am. Refreezing means taking the paper forms away once the new system works, so nobody quietly keeps a parallel set in the office drawer.

Kotter's 8 steps

John Kotter, a Harvard Business School professor, set out an eight-stage process in his 1995 Harvard Business Review article "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail", and later in a book called Leading Change. Each stage answers a mistake he saw organisations make. Kotter's firm now names the steps as:

1. Create a sense of urgency.
2. Build a guiding coalition.
3. Form a strategic vision.
4. Enlist a volunteer army.
5. Enable action by removing barriers.
6. Generate short-term wins.
7. Sustain acceleration.
8. Institute change.

In his 2014 book Accelerate, Kotter reworked the linear steps into eight "accelerators". The core idea is the same.

In a supported living service: say two teams are merging after a restructure. Urgency is the honest reason for the merger. The guiding coalition should include a respected senior support worker from each team, not just managers. A short-term win might be a first month of handovers with nothing missed. Kotter's warning about declaring victory too early fits care well: the new pattern looks fine in week two, then slides when the people who championed it go on leave.

ADKAR: change one person at a time

ADKAR was developed by Jeff Hiatt of Prosci in the 1990s. It looks at the individual: a team only changes when each person in it does. It has five elements, in order:

• Awareness of why the change is needed.
• Desire to take part and support it.
• Knowledge of how to change and what good looks like.
• Ability to do it in practice.
• Reinforcement to keep it going and stop the slide back.

Its real value is diagnosis. When someone isn't doing the new thing, ADKAR asks where they're stuck. A night carer still writing on paper might know exactly why the change matters and want to help, but never got a working login or any practice on the tablet. Another briefing on "why we're going digital" won't help them. Twenty minutes with the device on their next shift will.

The change curve, and its caveats

The change curve borrows from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's 1969 book On Death and Dying, which described responses she saw in dying patients: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Others later adapted them for change at work.

It's useful for one thing: reminding you that a dip in mood and performance after a change is normal, not proof that the change has failed or that your team is being difficult. Use it with care:

• It came from people facing death, not from research into workplace change.
• The Kübler-Ross Foundation says the stages can overlap, repeat or be skipped. They aren't a timetable.
• It can be misused to dismiss real concerns as "just the anger stage". If a carer says the new rota leaves one person without help at 7am, that's information, not grief.

How to choose a model

• Planning a big change across a service or several sites: Kotter gives you a checklist for the leadership side.
• Explaining a change simply: Lewin's three steps fit on a whiteboard.
• Working out why particular people haven't changed: ADKAR.
• Supporting a team through a loss, such as a unit closing or a team being split: the change curve, with its limits in mind.

Most managers mix them. The model matters less than thinking about the people affected before you announce anything.

Why change fails

You'll often read that 70% of change programmes fail. Mark Hughes reviewed the sources of that figure in a 2011 paper in the Journal of Change Management and found no valid and reliable empirical evidence for it. The reasons change stalls are better known, and most will sound familiar:

• Nobody explained why. Staff hear about it from the rota, not from you.
• Too little communication. Kotter's 1995 article said leaders under-communicate their vision by a factor of 10. One meeting and a memo won't reach your night staff.
• The old way was left in place. If the paper forms are still in the drawer, people will use them.
• No time to practise. People were told what to do but never tried it.
• Victory was declared too early. The launch went well, attention moved on, and habits slid back.

Change and staff wellbeing

There's no legal requirement for change management training. But change is one of the six areas in HSE's Management Standards for work-related stress. HSE expects employers to share information in good time so staff understand why changes are proposed, consult them with a real chance to shape proposals, explain how roles will be affected, give a timeline and make support available. Where a change affects jobs, contracts or working patterns, employment law also sets out consultation duties, so take HR advice early.

How Kasorb can help

Our change management training helps managers and team leaders plan, communicate and lead change so it sticks. The full day covers why change often fails, how people experience change, planning and communicating change, handling resistance and keeping momentum once the launch is over. It runs on-site or live online for up to 12 staff, and can be built around a change you're making now, such as a restructure, a new system or a new way of working. Each person leaves with an action plan. Your trainer has used these skills for real. It's quoted for your team at one flat rate for the group, and certificates are emailed the next day.

For the wider leadership picture, see our management and leadership skills course, or emotional intelligence training for the harder conversations that change brings.

FAQs

What are the main change management models?

The best known are Lewin's three steps (unfreeze, change, refreeze), Kotter's 8 steps for leading change, Prosci's ADKAR model for individual change, and the change curve adapted from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's work on grief. Together they cover both the planning side of change and the people side.

What are the 3 stages of Lewin's change model?

Unfreeze, change and refreeze. First help people see why the current way has to change, then move to the new way with support and practice, then make it stick through routines and checks. Some researchers argue Lewin never set it out as a formal model himself, but the simple version is still widely taught.

What is the difference between Kotter and ADKAR?

Kotter's 8 steps describe what leaders do to move an organisation through change, from creating urgency to embedding it in the culture. ADKAR looks at each person: whether they have the awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement to change. Many managers use Kotter to plan and ADKAR to spot where people are stuck.

Is the Kübler-Ross change curve evidence-based?

Not for workplace change. Kübler-Ross described responses she saw in dying patients in her 1969 book On Death and Dying, and others later applied them to change at work. It's a helpful reminder that a dip after change is normal, but the stages can overlap, repeat or be skipped, so don't treat it as a timetable.

Which change management model is best for healthcare?

There isn't a single best model. In health and care settings, managers often use Kotter or Lewin to plan a change such as a new care records system, and ADKAR to support individual staff who are struggling with it. What matters most is involving the people who do the work and keeping communication going across every shift.