ABSTRACT
Published with only minor alterations in two different articles Frontiers in Group Dynamics and Group Decision and Social Change, Kurt Lewin summarized the process of planned change this way. A change toward a higher level of group performance is frequently short lived; after a “shot in the arm,” group life soon returns to the previous level. A successful change includes therefore three aspects: unfreezing (if necessary) the present level L1, moving to the new level L2, and freezing group life on the new level. Unfreezing, moving, and freezing are an intentional simplification, to create a framework for the process of planned change. In his 1943 essay, Psychological Ecology, Lewin uses his Food Habits action research as an example for explaining his theory of planned change, including the application of group dynamics and field theory. The experiments reported here cover but a few of the necessary variations.
