Martin Wood and Keith Cowan talk about unfreezing. I've had
difficulty with the use of the word 'unlearning' in that we are really
talking about adapting new ways of behaviour, and recognizing the
importance and value of the new behaviour over the old.
The term learning, includes learning language, knowledge and
behaviour. Thus unlearning can denote the discarding of old knowledge
and behaviour, while we are really only talking about behaviour. As
Martin said
> re-visiting the unfreeze-move-refreeze model that Kurt Lewin used to
> help explain/manage significant change...
> Summarising, the "unfreezing" stage is one where there a recognition
> that things have to change, and a willingness to make a change.
> "Move" is when change take place, and the "refreeze" stage is when
> all the changes are in place, and everyone (in theory) settles down
> to the new way of "doing things round here".
This approach is closer to my way of thinking of the 'unlearning'
we're discussing. If people don't unfreeze, if they don't recognize
the 'WIIFM' (What's in it for me) in the change, if they don't desire
to change, then there will be no unlearning. I think the unfreezing
is probably the most difficult stage for most people. Once the
decision is truly made, the 'move' is easy (comparitively speaking).
> Personally, I think that the term "re-freezing" isn't very helpful
> these days ( ... but that's another story ... )
I'd appreciate hearing your 'other story'
Gary Scherling
Helping people help themselves
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/GScherling_GMS_TPN
--GSCHERL@fed.ism.ca (GSCHERL)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>