One of the recent additions to Goal Nabber is the Force Field Analysis. It was described as a Change Management technique by Kurt Lewin (1940s) to analyze competing forces. The same principals were described by Benjamin Franklin to balance pros and cons in a Decisional Balance sheet. Thus, two situations where this can be used are decision making and evaluating a desired change.
It is a simple and practical way to list and visualize opposite factors. The approach is the following:
- Define the situation to evaluate.
- Identify influencing factors distinguishing driving and retraining ones. This can be done separately. However, it often happens that they are identified simultaneously.
- Score their intensity based on greater or lesser influence.
- Analyze the result. Equal opposing forces and factors point to a status quo. For change to occur, the equilibrium must be disrupted. That can be done either by strengthening the driving factors, or by weakening the retraining factors.
There are potential weaknesses to be aware of. This is a subjective approach both while identifying and scoring factors. To overcome this, the team involved should be representative of all stakeholders. Stakeholders can be subject matter experts, manager, operators, support agents, change agents, suppliers and customers. Too small a team will not be representative of all perspectives. And, too many (e.g. over 10) will become inefficient. A representative team will provide a better insight to identify the different factors. And in absence of quantified information, it will also result in a richer discussion to determine the influence of the factors. By mitigating the weaknesses, the outcome of the force field analysis will give a better insight into the strongest factors and ones that can be changed.
