Internal communications and investor-day presentations articulated the legacy fixed-line decline, the 5G opportunity, the need for cost discipline and the strategic case for the InfraCo separation. The communication built the case for the change before it was announced in detail.

Workforce restructure (approximately 2,800 redundancies announced in 2024), product simplification (consolidating consumer mobile plans), the InfraCo separation, and platform migration were rolled out on a phased schedule. Affected employees received redundancy packages and outplacement support; remaining staff received training in the new operating model.

The simplified product set, the new operating structure and the InfraCo arrangement become the default. New employees join into the transformed Telstra. Recognition, reward and reporting align with the T25 strategy.

VICBusiness ManagementSyllabus dot point

Area of Study 2: How is change implemented in a business using a structured change model?

Lewin's three-step change model - unfreeze, change (transition), refreeze - as a framework for managing a planned organisational change, and the management actions appropriate at each stage

A focused answer to the VCE Business Management Unit 4 AoS 2 dot point on Lewin's three-step change model. The unfreeze, change and refreeze stages, the management actions appropriate at each stage, and how the model complements Lewin's force field analysis, with worked Australian examples from ANZ, Telstra and Coles.

Generated by Claude Opus 4.710 min answerUpdated 2026-05-27

Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed

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What this dot point is asking

VCAA wants you to know Kurt Lewin's three-step change model (unfreeze, change, refreeze), the management actions appropriate at each stage, and how the model is applied to a real business change. Section A short responses commonly test one stage in depth; Section B case studies often require you to recommend management actions at each stage for a scenario business undertaking change.

The answer

Lewin's contribution to change theory

Kurt Lewin (1890-1947) was a German-American social psychologist who developed two complementary frameworks that VCAA includes in the Unit 4 curriculum.

The force field analysis (covered in a separate dot point) is the diagnostic tool - it identifies the driving and restraining forces operating on a change situation. The three-step model is the implementation framework - it describes the stages a planned change passes through, and the management actions appropriate at each stage.

Both tools work together. Force field analysis tells managers what to act on; the three-step model tells managers when and how to act through the change journey.

The three steps

1. Unfreeze

The first stage prepares the business for change by destabilising the current state. The metaphor is melting frozen water - the current state is fixed in place by the routines, structures, beliefs and incentives that have grown up around it, and it must be loosened before it can take a new shape.

Unfreeze involves:

Communicating the burning platform. Sharing the data and analysis that make the need for change concrete - declining performance, competitor threats, regulatory pressure, customer feedback, the cost of inaction.
Surfacing and challenging existing mental models. Asking why the business does things the current way, exposing the assumptions that support the status quo, presenting evidence that contradicts them.
Building dissatisfaction with the status quo. Without felt dissatisfaction, employees see change as gratuitous disruption.
Articulating the vision of the changed state. A clear picture of what the business will look like after the change, why it will be better, and what role each employee plays in it.
Engaging affected stakeholders. Consulting employees, managers, unions, customers and suppliers before decisions are made. Surfacing concerns early. Taking input that improves the plan.
Weakening the restraining forces identified in the force field analysis - addressing fears, providing reassurance, removing structural barriers.

Unfreeze takes time. It cannot be skipped. A change that is announced before the business is unfrozen will meet defensive resistance because employees have not made the cognitive shift required to support it.

2. Change (transition)

The second stage is the actual transition from the current state to the new state. The change is implemented - new structures, processes, technologies, behaviours, products or markets are introduced.

This is the most disruptive phase. Employees are operating in unfamiliar territory; old habits are interrupted; new processes have not yet been mastered; mistakes are made; productivity often dips before it recovers. The dip is normal and predictable, and managers should plan for it rather than panic when it appears.

Management actions appropriate to the change stage:

Training and skill development for employees in new processes, technologies or behaviours.
Coaching and support to help employees adapt - peer-mentor programs, change-champion networks, accessible managerial time.
Continuous communication about progress, milestones, wins, problems and the path forward. Silence during transition breeds anxiety and rumour.
Resourcing the change - time, budget, technology, external expertise, secondments. Under-resourced changes fail.
Empathy and patience with the human discomfort of operating in an unfamiliar way. Employees who feel managers care about them through the transition trust the change more.
Quick wins to demonstrate that the change is producing results, sustaining momentum and reinforcing the case for change.
Addressing problems openly as they emerge, rather than denying them and damaging trust.

The change stage often takes longer than managers anticipate. Capability takes time to build. Confidence takes time to develop. The full benefits of the change typically arrive months or years after the visible activity completes.

3. Refreeze

The third stage stabilises the new state so it becomes the default. The metaphor returns - the now-melted water takes a new shape and is frozen again so it does not slip back.

Without refreeze, businesses revert. Old habits reassert when managerial attention moves to the next priority. Legacy systems quietly rebuild around the new technology. New starters learn the prior ways from long-tenured colleagues. The change unravels.

Management actions appropriate to refreeze:

Embed new behaviours in performance management. New KPIs, scorecards and reviews reflect the changed state. People are evaluated on the new way of working.
Align reward and recognition. Bonuses, promotions, and informal recognition reinforce the new behaviours. Behaviours that are not reinforced fade.
Update policies, procedures, training materials and onboarding. The institutional memory captures the new state so new starters learn the new way, not the old.
Continue communication. Repeated reinforcement of the vision, the progress and the success stories. Change leaders continue to model the new behaviours.
Continue measurement. Monitoring the change-related metrics to detect drift and intervene early.
Address residual resistance. Some employees will continue to prefer the old state. Refreeze includes performance-managing or moving on people who refuse to adopt the change after reasonable support.
Celebrate success. Public recognition of the achieved change as a milestone, reinforcing the legitimacy of the new state.

Refreeze can take 12-36 months for a major change to fully embed.

Worked example: ANZ digital banking transformation

ANZ launched ANZ Plus, a new digital-first retail banking platform, from 2022 with progressive customer migration. The transformation is a useful illustration of the three-step model.

Unfreeze (preparation and case-building).

Internal data showed customer attrition to digital-first competitors (Up, ING, Macquarie's digital offering).
Benchmark data on cost-per-customer-acquisition and cost-to-serve showed legacy infrastructure was uncompetitive.
External research showed customer preferences shifting toward mobile-first banking, particularly among under-35s.
Leadership communicated the change rationale across the organisation through town-halls and divisional briefings.
Restraining forces (existing platform investment, branch-network loyalty, change fatigue from previous transformations, regulatory licensing complexity) were named openly and addressed through structured engagement.

Change (implementation).

New customer-facing technology was built and progressively launched.
New operating processes (digital onboarding, digital servicing, exception handling) were designed and deployed.
Staff received training in the new platform, the new customer experience and the new servicing model.
Customers were supported through migration with proactive communication and support resources.
Legacy products were progressively wound down on a managed schedule.
The transition produced predictable disruption - early-customer pain points, staff capability gaps, integration issues with legacy systems - that were addressed through fix-and-iterate sprints.

Refreeze (embedding).

New metrics (digital-adoption rate, ANZ Plus customer numbers, cost-to-serve per digital customer, net promoter score for digital experience) embedded in management scorecards.
The transformed digital experience became the default for new customer acquisition.
New-starter induction trains people on the transformed model rather than the legacy one.
Recognition and remuneration tied to the digital outcomes.
Continuing investment in the platform signals that the change is not a one-off project but a new operating model.

The transformation is approximately on track in its multi-year journey, though as with any large bank transformation it has faced delivery challenges and the customer-acquisition pace has been more measured than initial ambitions.

Worked example: Telstra T25 strategy reset

Telstra CEO Vicki Brady's T25 strategy (2022-2025) illustrates the model in a different context.

Unfreeze: Internal communications and investor-day presentations articulated the legacy fixed-line decline, the 5G opportunity, the need for cost discipline and the strategic case for the InfraCo separation. The communication built the case for the change before it was announced in detail.
Change: Workforce restructure (approximately 2,800 redundancies announced in 2024), product simplification (consolidating consumer mobile plans), the InfraCo separation, and platform migration were rolled out on a phased schedule. Affected employees received redundancy packages and outplacement support; remaining staff received training in the new operating model.
Refreeze: The simplified product set, the new operating structure and the InfraCo arrangement become the default. New employees join into the transformed Telstra. Recognition, reward and reporting align with the T25 strategy.

Worked example: Coles automated distribution centre

Coles's rollout of the Ocado-supplied automated distribution centres at Kemps Creek (NSW, live 2024) and Truganina (VIC, live shortly after) is a third illustration.

Unfreeze: Communication of the strategic rationale (cost competition with Woolworths and Aldi, labour-cost inflation, retail-network growth requirements), engagement with the United Workers Union and RAFFWU, transparency on workforce impact (approximately 1,000+ manual DC jobs affected), early consultation about redeployment and redundancy options.
Change: Construction and commissioning of the automated facilities (capital investment of approximately $1 billion), phased cutover from manual to automated operations, training of staff in the new operating model, redeployment and redundancy of staff in roles that ceased.
Refreeze: The automated DC becomes the operating model for Coles's national supply chain. Manual DC processes wound down. New operating metrics, performance management and capital planning aligned to the automated model. Staff hired into the new operation are inducted into the changed way of working.

The model's limits and complements

Lewin's model is a simplification - real change is rarely linear, and businesses often run multiple changes simultaneously at different stages. Critics (notably John Kotter, whose eight-step model elaborates on Lewin) argue that "refreeze" is unrealistic in a continuously changing environment, and that "be ready to change again" is a more honest framing.

VCAA's Unit 4 syllabus also includes Senge's learning organisation and the low-risk versus high-risk change strategies framework. The three-step model is a structural complement to these - Lewin's model tells managers what to do at each stage of a discrete change, while Senge's learning organisation tells managers how to build the capability to change continuously.

Worked example

"A medium-sized Australian retailer plans to shift from in-store retailing to a hybrid online-and-in-store model. Using Lewin's three-step change model, recommend management actions for each stage. (10 marks)"

Plan. Cover all three stages with three to five actions per stage, justified by the change context.

Unfreeze. The retailer's leadership should:

Share data on online retail growth, competitor moves and the cost of inaction.
Engage and consult store managers, head-office staff, suppliers and the union (likely SDA) about the proposed shift.
Surface and challenge the assumptions that block the change ("our customers prefer in-store", "online is too expensive to build", "our staff are not digital-capable").
Build the vision of the hybrid future and what success will look like.
Identify and address the largest restraining forces (capex requirement, staff retraining, store-network rationalisation, supplier integration).

Change (transition). The retailer should:

Build the online platform (in-house or partner) with progressive functionality release.
Pilot the hybrid model in a small number of stores before national rollout.
Train store staff in the new omnichannel role (in-store fulfilment for online orders, customer-experience integration, click-and-collect).
Reorganise head-office functions to support digital marketing, online merchandising and digital customer service.
Provide continuous communication, quick wins, support and resources through the transition.
Address the workforce impacts (some store roles change, some reduce, head-office capability grows) with consultation, retraining, redeployment and where unavoidable, redundancy with proper packages.

Refreeze. The retailer should:

Embed new metrics (online sales share, conversion rate, click-and-collect volume, omnichannel customer lifetime value) in performance management.
Realign incentive plans to reward omnichannel rather than channel-conflicted behaviour.
Update onboarding, training and policy documents to reflect the new operating model.
Continue investment in the digital platform and capability so the change does not stagnate.
Celebrate the milestones and use them to reinforce the legitimacy of the new state.
Continue communication of the strategic vision so the change does not unravel when leadership attention shifts to the next priority.

Verdict. The recommended actions, applied through Lewin's three stages, give the retailer a structured path through what is otherwise a high-risk transformation. The model is not a guarantee of success, but its absence is a near-guarantee of failure.

Common traps

Confusing the three-step model with force field analysis: They are different Lewin tools - the three-step model is the staged process; force field analysis is the diagnostic of forces. Both are in the curriculum.
Treating "change" as the only stage that matters: The strongest answers give equal weight to unfreeze (preparation) and refreeze (embedding). Most failed changes fail at unfreeze (rushed or skipped) or refreeze (declared complete too early).
Treating the model as linear and one-off: Real changes loop back, run in parallel and continue evolving. The three-step model is a useful simplification, not a literal recipe.
Listing actions without linking them to the stage: Markers want the action with its purpose at that specific stage (for example, "training is a change-stage action that builds the capability employees need to operate the new system").
Forgetting refreeze altogether: A change that is not refrozen unravels. The refreeze actions (embedding in performance management, reward, onboarding) are exam-rewarded.

Exam-style practice questions

Practice questions written in the style of VCAA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.

2024 VCAA6 marksExplain Lewin's three-step change model. Apply it to a contemporary Australian business change.

Show worked answer →

A 6-mark answer needs all three steps explained and a worked application.

Lewin's three-step change model: Kurt Lewin (1947) proposed that planned change passes through three stages.
1. Unfreeze: Surface the need for change and reduce the forces that hold the current state in place. Managers communicate the burning platform, share performance data and weaken restraining forces.
2. Change (transition): Move to the new state. New structures, processes or behaviours are introduced. Managers provide training, support, communication and resources through the discomfort.
3. Refreeze: Stabilise the new state. New behaviours become routine, new systems are reinforced through reward, new norms are taught to new starters. Without refreeze, the business reverts.
Application: ANZ digital banking transformation

Unfreeze. Leadership communicated the need for change through internal data on customer attrition to digital-first competitors (Up, ING, Macquarie). Restraining forces (legacy IT, change fatigue, branch loyalty) were addressed openly.

Change. ANZ Plus launched from 2022 with progressive customer migration. New technology, processes and staff skills were introduced; legacy products retired.

Refreeze. New metrics (digital adoption, ANZ Plus customer numbers, cost-to-serve) embedded in scorecards. The digital experience became the default for new customers; recognition ties to digital outcomes.

Markers reward (1) all three steps defined, (2) a worked application, (3) specific management actions at each stage.

2023 VCAA4 marksIdentify two management actions appropriate to the unfreeze stage of Lewin's three-step change model, and explain why each matters.

Show worked answer →

A 4-mark answer needs two distinct unfreeze-stage actions with the reason for each.

1. Communicate the burning platform. Share data, analysis and stories that make the need for change concrete and urgent. The communication should make clear what happens if the business does not change (loss of market share, financial decline, irrelevance) and what the opportunity is from changing.

Why it matters: without a felt need for change, employees see the change as gratuitous disruption. Resistance forms because the cost of changing seems higher than the cost of continuing. A clear burning platform reframes the cost of inaction as higher than the cost of change.

Example: Telstra CEO Vicki Brady's quarterly all-staff briefings during the early phase of the T25 strategy used clear data on legacy fixed-line decline, mobile-customer growth and competitor cost-to-serve to communicate the need for the change.

2. Engage and consult affected stakeholders. Bring affected employees, managers, unions, customers and suppliers into early conversation about the change. Surface their concerns. Take input that improves the change plan.

Why it matters: employees who feel heard during unfreeze become less defensive during change. Specific concerns surface that the change plan can address (training needs, fairness questions, sequencing constraints). The engagement weakens restraining forces by addressing them rather than overriding them.

Other valid unfreeze actions: surfacing and challenging the assumptions and mental models that hold the status quo in place, demonstrating the cost of the current state through performance benchmarks, articulating the vision of the changed state, building a coalition of change advocates across the business, weakening the restraining forces identified in the force field analysis.

Markers reward (1) two distinct unfreeze actions, (2) a reason or mechanism for each.