CLC Organizational Change Management — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A leader is implementing a company-wide restructuring. According to Kotter's 8-Step Change Model, which step must come BEFORE creating a vision for change?
- Establishing a sense of urgency (Correct answer)
- Communicating the change vision
- Generating short-term wins
- Anchoring new approaches in the culture
Correct answer: Establishing a sense of urgency
Kotter's model begins with creating a sense of urgency (Step 1) to motivate people and overcome complacency. Without this foundation, later steps — including forming a guiding coalition and creating a vision — lack the emotional energy needed to succeed.
Question 2: The ADKAR change management model identifies five building blocks for successful individual change. Which element addresses a person's desire to support and participate in the change?
- Awareness
- Desire (Correct answer)
- Knowledge
- Reinforcement
Correct answer: Desire
ADKAR stands for Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement. 'Desire' specifically represents the personal motivation and choice to engage with the change — it cannot be mandated and is often the most fragile element.
Question 3: Kurt Lewin's three-stage change model describes organizational change as a sequential process. What is the correct order of the three stages?
- Unfreeze → Change → Refreeze (Correct answer)
- Change → Unfreeze → Refreeze
- Refreeze → Unfreeze → Change
- Unfreeze → Refreeze → Change
Correct answer: Unfreeze → Change → Refreeze
Lewin's model starts with 'Unfreeze' (disrupting the status quo and creating readiness), moves to 'Change' (implementing new behaviors or structures), and ends with 'Refreeze' (embedding the new state so it becomes the norm).
Question 4: An employee who has been with a company for 20 years is visibly anxious and performing below expectations following a merger announcement. As a leadership coach, your FIRST priority is to:
- Provide data showing the merger's financial benefits
- Acknowledge and explore the employee's emotional response to the change (Correct answer)
- Set new performance targets to restore focus
- Escalate the situation to HR as a performance issue
Correct answer: Acknowledge and explore the employee's emotional response to the change
Coaching through change requires meeting people where they are emotionally before moving to rational problem-solving. Acknowledging the emotional response builds psychological safety and trust, which are prerequisites for the employee to engage constructively with the transition.
Question 5: The change curve, originally adapted from Kübler-Ross's grief model, is used by leadership coaches to anticipate employee reactions. Which stage typically follows initial shock and denial?
- Integration and acceptance
- Anger and resistance (Correct answer)
- Experimentation and testing
- Commitment and engagement
Correct answer: Anger and resistance
After shock and denial, individuals typically move into anger and resistance — a natural defensive response to perceived loss or threat. Coaches who recognize this stage can normalize the reaction and avoid escalating conflict by responding with empathy rather than pressure.
Question 6: A leadership coach is working with a senior manager who is privately skeptical of a change initiative but publicly complying. This pattern is BEST described as:
- Adaptive resistance
- Compliance without commitment (Correct answer)
- Informed pessimism
- Proactive disengagement
Correct answer: Compliance without commitment
Compliance without commitment occurs when individuals follow directives behaviorally but have not internalized the change. This is one of the most dangerous patterns in change management because it appears successful on the surface while undermining sustainability. A coach's role is to surface and work through the underlying skepticism.
CLC Organizational Change Management
A leader is implementing a company-wide restructuring.
According to Kotter's 8-Step Change Model, which step must come BEFORE creating a vision for change?