Force Field Analysis

The idea behind Force Field Analysis is that situations are maintained by an equilibrium between forces that drive change and others that resist change, as shown below. For change to happen, the driving forces must be strengthened or the resisting forces weakened.

Creating a FFA

Step 1: Describe Your Plan or Proposal for Change

Define your goal or vision for change, and write it down in a box in the middle of the page.

Step 2: Identify Forces For Change

Think about the kinds of forces that are driving change. These can be internal and external.

Internal drivers could include:

• Outdated machinery or product lines.

• Declining team morale.

• A need to increase profitability.

Your external drivers could include:

• A volatile, uncertain  operating environment.

• Disruptive technologies.

• Changing demographic trends.

Tip 1:

It's important to identify as many of the factors that will influence the change as you can. Where appropriate, involve other people, such as team members or experts in your organization.

Tip 2:

The following questions may help you to identify forces that will influence the change:

• What business benefit will the change deliver?

• Who supports the change? Who is against it? Why?

• Do you have the resources to make the change work?

• What costs and risks are involved?

• What business processes will be affected?

Tools such as the Futures Wheel, Impact Analysis, "What If" Analysis, Stakeholder Analysis, and brainstorming can also help with this step.

When you've identified the forces that are driving change, add them to the left-hand side of your Force Field Analysis.

Step 3: Identify Forces Against Change

Now brainstorm the forces that resist or are unfavorable to change.

Internal resistors and restrainers could include:

• Fears of the unknown.

• Existing organisational structures.

• "That's not how we do it here " attitudes.

External factors might be:

• Existing commitments to partner organizations.

• Government legislation.

• Obligations toward your customers.

Now add the forces against change to the right-hand side of your Force Field Analysis.

Step 4: Assign Scores

Next, score each force, from, say, one (weak) to five (strong), according to the degree of influence each one has on the plan, and then add up the scores for each side (for and against).

For a visual representation of the influence that each force has, draw arrows around them. Use bigger arrows for the forces that will have a greater influence on the change, and smaller arrows for forces that will have a weaker influence.

By now, your Force Field Analysis should look something like the example above.