Jackie has worked for Tenunt Health for over 20 years and has been in charge of their fledgling health insurance unit for the past three years. In that time her unit has made significant progress, and Jackie has been very pleased. Yesterday, however, her boss informed her that the insurance unit will be asked to become part of a massive information system installation that Tenunt Health is creating. Simultaneously, the company has announced that it is buying another health insurance company, Partner Health Insurance, which will more than triple the size of the existing health insurance offerings of Tenunt Health.

Jackie has been asked to lead the combined health insurance unit and design the changes that will be needed for the new insurance unit to offer Medicare Advantage service. Jackie’s boss has asked her to develop and present a transformation/change plan for accomplishing these objectives. He also added that he really likes both Lewin’s and Kotter’s change models and would like her to use both in her plan and presentation.

Jackie is familiar with Lewin’s model of unfreeze, change, and refreeze, but she has little information about Kotter’s Eight-Step Model. She now must decide on how to approach her proposed change plan.

Questions 

1. How could Jackie combine both Lewin’s and Kotter’s models?

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of combining both models? What are the advantages and disadvantages of keeping them separate?

3. Can you think of any key factors that are not specifically mentioned in either model that must be addressed?