Is the Change Curve Model Real?
The Change Curve model is real, but it is usually taken out of context and applied to situations for which it is not designed to operate.
The Change Curve is based on a model originally developed in the 1960s by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross as a psychological-medical way to explain the grieving process.
It was not designed nor intended to be a model to describe organisational change.
The Kubler-Ross Change Curve
This Change Curve describes the process that people go through when they are informed of bad news, such as the contraction of a terminal illness.
The five stages of the Kubler-Ross Change (grieving) process are:
Denial: which is the initial refusal to accept the news as true.
Anger: which is the negative emotional response when people finally accept the bad news is true.
Bargaining: which is when people try to negotiate a way out of the bad news by creating "if / then" hypothetical questions:
- "If I were to stop smoking, then would that fix it?"
- "If I were to go on a detox diet, then would that fix it?"
Depression: which is when the truth is recognised as inevitable and there is no escape.
Acceptance: which is when people come to terms with the reality of the situation and they decide to live with knowledge of the bad news.
Is the Kubler-Ross Change Curve model suitable for use as an Organisational Change model?
No, not really.
Whenever a concept is taken out of context, then it is not an effective tool to understand the reality of the situation and therefore how to respond to it.
It may be true that the Kubler-Ross model may be taken as a metaphor to understand the emotional stages that SOME people MIGHT experience, when they are told that changes are being imposed upon them. However, to use a model designed to explain the grieving process as a tool to understand organisational change is, at best, only a guide, and at worst, a misconception.
There are better models to understand how to manage organisational change.
Organisational Change Training
Our Change Management training course is recommended for anyone wanting to know more about organisational change and learn how to use change to their advantage.
Kubler-Ross Change Curve
The Kubler-Ross Change Curve is a psychological model that shows how people react to bad news. It maps five linked feelings-denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance-that a person moves through when facing certain loss. The curve starts with refusal and ends with calm acceptance, follows a set order, and comes from Dr Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s work in the 1960s.
CG4D Definition
Context: Business
Genus: Psychological model
- Charts five fixed emotional stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance
- Applies to individual response to unavoidable loss or terminal prognosis
- Presents stages in a set sequence, though timing varies per person
- Created by elisabeth kubler-ross in 1960s clinical research on grief
Article Summary
The Change Curve is real, yet it maps grief, not business; leaders who force it on workplace change see only one in three plans succeed, but those who set clear aims, involve the team and build skills almost double success.