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What is the Calm Waters Metaphor?

bySree Rama Raoon March 4, 2010

Until recently the calm waters metaphor dominated the thinking of practicing managers andacademics. The prevailing model for handling change in calm waters is best illustrated in Kurt

Lewins three step description of the change process.

According to Lewin, successful change requires unfreezing the status quo, changing to a new

sate, and freezing the new change to make it permanent. The status quo can be considered anequilibrium state. Unfreezing is necessary to move from this equilibrium. It can be achieved in

one of three ways:

1) The driving forces, which direct behavior away from the status quo, can be increased.2) The restraining forces, which hinder movement from the existing equilibrium, can be

decreased.3) The two approaches can be combined.

Exhibit The change Process

Unfreezing Changing Refreezing

Once unfreezing has been accomplished the change itself can be implemented . However, the

mere introduction of change does not ensure that it take hold. The new situation, therefore, needs

to be refrozen so that it can be sustained over time. Unless this last step is attended to, it is likely

that the change will be short lived and employees will revert to the previous equilibrium state.

The objective of refreezing the entire equilibrium state, then, is to stabilize the new situation bybalancing the driving and restraining forces.

Note how Lewins three step process treats change as a break in the organizations equilibrium

state. The status quo has been distributed, and change is necessary to establish a new equilibrium

state. This view might have been appropriate to the relatively calm waters metaphor isincreasingly obsolete as a description of the kinds of seas that current managers have to navigate.

How does the White Water rapids Metaphor of change functions?This metaphor takes into consideration the fact environments are both uncertain and dynamic. To

get a feeling for what managing change might be like when you have to continually maneuver in

uninterrupted rapids, imagine attending a college in which courses vary in length so when yousign up, you dont know whether a course will last for 2 weeks or 30 weeks. Furthermore, theinstructor can end a course any time he or she wants, with no prior warning. If that isnt bad

enough the length of the class session changes each timesometimes it lasts 20 minutes, other

times it runs for 3 hours and the time of the next class meeting is set by the instructor during theprevious class. Oh yes, there is one more thing. The exams are all unannounced, so you have to

be ready for a test at any time. To succeed in this college, you would have to be incredibly

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flexible and be able to respond quickly to every changing condition. Students who are too

structured or slow on their feet would not survive.

A growing number of managers are coming to accept that their job is much like what a student

would face in such a college. The stability and predictability of the claim waters do not exist.

Disruptions in the status quo are not occasional and temporary, to be followed by a return tocalm waters. Many of todays managers never get out of the rapids. They face constant change,

bordering on chaos. These managers are being forced to play a game they have never played

before, which is governed by rules created as the game progresses.

Is the white water rapids metaphor merely an overstatement? No, take the case of General

Motors. In the intensely competitive automotive manufacturing business, a company has to beprepared for any possibility. Cars are being surpassed by sport utility vehicles. Gasoline engines

still cause fury among environmentalists who desire a more environment friendly source of

power for vehicles. Government regulators demand ever increasing gasoline mileage. Customers

want new and unique styles more frequently and competition in the industry is fierce. Although

General Motors has typically on big competitors new entrants into the marketplaceKia andScion pick away at market share. For General Motors to succeed, it must change and

continuously improve and revamp everything that it does.

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