What are Lewin's three stages in culture change?

• A. Form; Storm; Norm
• B. Plan; Do; Check
• C. Unfreeze; Change; Refreeze
• D. Initiate; Scale; Sustain

Answer: (C)

Lewin's approach to culture change focuses on three steps: preparing people to move away from the old ways, actually moving to the new ways, and then cementing those new ways so they stick. The first step, unfreeze, is about helping people see that the current culture or habits no longer fit the organization’s needs, reducing resistance, and creating motivation to change. The second step, change, is where new behaviors, processes, or norms are introduced and practiced, often through leadership modeling, training, and new routines. The final step, refreeze, aims to stabilize the new culture by embedding it in policies, rewards, and everyday practices so the changes become lasting norms. This sequence is precisely captured by the option that lists Unfreeze, Change, Refreeze. Other options reflect different frameworks—for example, planning, doing, and checking align with PDCA; Forming, Storming, Norming describe group development stages; Initiate, Scale, Sustain describes a scaling approach—but they are not Lewin’s model.