1. The Change Journey: Facilitating Second-Order Change
Second-order change institutionalized
Awareness/Urgency for Change
Hawthorne Effect (assuming the group has collective commitment to change)
Second-order change introduced
Unfreeze
Refreeze
And the process repeats….
Group Performance Level
T R A N S I T I O N
Change begins with awareness and/or urgency for change
Lewin indicates the organization begins to unfreeze…changes begin to occur.
When members are on board and committed to the changes, progress occurs quickly, but it is generally inflated and temporary (not yet internalized and due to renewed focus and energy), and may be related to the Hawthorne effect, meaning it is becaue we are aware we are trying to change so we engage and change.
As the difficulties of the change settle in, and as the group’s commitment and energy wane, there is often an implementation dip (in performance and implementation of the change)
Continued focus and effort, with support for the change, particularly support to the members responsible for implementing the change (job-embedded professional development) begins to slow and redirect the implementation dip and progress toward the change gains momentum.
Continued work on understanding the change, data collection, reflection, problem-solving, and most of all collaboratiave study of data and the issues, moves the change toward a high level of implementation.
Successful second order change becomes a reality as the change is internalized in the life of the organization. As Lewin describes it, the change is now frozen.
And naturally, the internalized change (the new processes and related skills), will go through another cycle of change to continue to meet the needs of the organization.
Implementation Dip
Sustained building-wide data collection/analysis, dialogue, and problem solving
Job-embedded professional development