Navigating Change: Practitioner Takeaways on Change Management Models (so far)

As a Learning & Organizational Development (L&OD) practitioner and consultant, I’m often asked to support organizations as they move through change. Change management is difficult, and how I approach it depends on my role:

• As an internal practitioner, I focus on culture, people, systems, product, risks, and loss aversion.
• As an external consultant, my job is to move the organization from Point A to Point B with the least amount of fallout.

In many ways, external consultants are the “fall guys” of organizational change. Leadership brings us in to facilitate change while absorbing resistance. But whether I’m internal or external, the fundamental question remains:

How do we implement change successfully while minimizing disruption?

This question isn’t just theoretical for me—it’s the focus of my dissertation on inclusive leadership through bottom-up training programs. As part of my research, I’ve been analyzing four major change management models and their real-world applications.

The Four Change Management Models

1. Lewin’s Change Model: Unfreeze, Change, Refreeze

One of the most influential—and easiest to remember—change management models comes from Lewin. His model consists of three simple steps:

• Unfreeze – Prepare for the change
• Change – Implement the change
• Refreeze – Solidify the change through new systems, processes, and behaviors

While simple in theory, change is rarely linear. Lewin’s model assumes that organizations move cleanly from Unfreeze to Change to Refreeze, but in reality, change often loops backward before moving forward.

Additionally, this model depends heavily on leadership, which can be a challenge in long-standing, hierarchical organizations where power dynamics resist change.

2. Kotter’s 8-Step Model

Kotter’s model is a structured, step-by-step framework designed for long-term strategic change and emphasizes the importance of urgency and leadership:

1. Create urgency
2. Build a guiding coalition
3. Develop a vision and strategy
4. Communicate the vision
5. Empower employees
6. Generate short-term wins
7. Consolidate gains
8. Anchor the change

Kotter’s strength is that it leverages leadership influence to drive change. However, it is also rigid—if an organization deviates from the order, the model falls apart.

Additionally, this is a top-down model. It assumes leadership drives change and does not account for bottom-up influence, making it less effective in organizations with high employee resistance.

3. Appreciative Inquiry (AI): Positive Change Through Questions

What if asking open-ended questions could lead to positive organizational change? That is the foundation of Appreciative Inquiry. Instead of focusing on what is wrong, AI asks:

• What are we doing well?
• How can we build on our strengths?
• What is our ideal future state?

AI operates through the 4-D Model:

• Discovery – Identifying what works
• Dream – Envisioning what is possible
• Design – Creating a roadmap for success
• Destiny/Delivery – Implementing and sustaining change

Unlike Lewin or Kotter, AI is not prescriptive. It thrives in collaborative, innovative environments but is less effective in organizations resistant to change.

4. McKinsey 7-S Model: A Holistic View of Change

McKinsey’s model focuses on strategic alignment and categorizes organizational elements into hard and soft components:

• Hard Elements → Strategy, Structure, Systems
• Soft Elements → Shared Values, Style, Staff, Skills

One of McKinsey’s biggest strengths is its focus on interconnectedness—it highlights how changing one element affects all others.

Which Change Model Works Best?

After analyzing these models, I mapped them to real-world applications:

• McKinsey 7-S → Succession Planning and Onboarding
• Kotter’s 8-Step → Leadership Development
• Lewin’s Model → Employee Engagement
• Appreciative Inquiry → Cultural Transformation

While no model is one-size-fits-all, this framework helps practitioners match the right model to the type of change they are leading.

Key Takeaways for Practitioners

• Be adaptable. The best practitioners do not rigidly follow one model—they tailor their approach based on the organization’s culture, leadership, and readiness for change.
• Choose the model based on the type of change. Some changes need a structured, top-down approach (Kotter), while others require collaboration and flexibility (AI).
• Cultural transformation requires participation. AI and McKinsey work well in people-centric change, while Lewin and Kotter are better for process-driven changes.
• Rapid change needs a different approach. None of these models account for emergency situations. In crisis response, such as during COVID-19, I have used PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) to implement quick, iterative improvements.

Final Thoughts

This research is part of my dissertation on inclusive leadership and bottom-up change, but it is also something I apply daily as a practitioner.

As organizations evolve in 2025, flexibility in change management is more critical than ever. The models we use should be tools, not limitations.

A note on AI: While my dissertation research is entirely my own, I used ChatGPT to help synthesize my original 3,000-word analysis into a digestible LinkedIn article. AI-assisted writing allows me to streamline complex ideas while keeping my practitioner insights at the forefront.

Which change model has worked best for your organization? Let me know in the comments.