SC QUALITY GUILDForce field analysis
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List the forces pushing for a change and the forces holding it back, and weight each one. The tool totals both sides, shows the balance, and with planned actions shows whether they are enough to tip it.
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What force field analysis is for
Force field analysis, developed by the social psychologist Kurt Lewin, looks at a proposed change as a balance of forces. Driving forces push toward the change: customer demands, cost pressure, audit findings, a better way of working. Restraining forces hold the present state in place: habit, cost, skills, fear, missing equipment. While the two sides are in balance, nothing moves. The analysis shows what has to shift for the change to happen.
It is a facilitation and planning tool. Teams use it before a change, to plan how to win acceptance, and when a change has stalled, to see why.
How to run it
- Describe the change as a move from the present state to a desired state.
- List the driving forces and the restraining forces. Include the people affected; restraining forces are easy to miss from the planning office.
- Weight each force, here 1 (weak) to 5 (strong). The weights are judgments, so agree them as a team.
- Compare the totals and look at the biggest forces on each side.
- Plan actions: how to weaken each important restraining force, and where useful how to strengthen a driving force. Estimate the weight after each action.
Reducing resistance works better than pushing
Lewin's main point is that adding drive tends to raise the resistance: more pressure from management produces more push-back. Reducing a restraining force, for example by training people, involving them in the design, or removing a practical obstacle, changes the balance without that reaction, and the change is more likely to last. The checks flag a plan whose gains come mainly from more drive.
Reading the totals
The totals are a way of structuring the discussion, not a measurement. A driving total of 15 against a restraining total of 14 does not mean the change will succeed; it means the sides are close and the largest restraining forces need attention. Treat a single heavily weighted restraining force with no action as the first item in the plan.
Where it fits
Force field analysis often follows the decision to change and comes before a change management plan and a stakeholder analysis. It also works for an affinity-style team session: the forces can be brainstormed on cards and sorted.
On the exam
The CQE Body of Knowledge lists force field analysis with affinity diagrams among the quality management and planning tools (V.B.1), and among the facilitation tools a CQE should be able to apply (I.E.2). Expect to identify driving and restraining forces in a scenario and to know that reducing restraining forces is the preferred strategy.