Making a decision – Force Field Analysis
In my career, I have often been involved in discussions that could take weeks to resolve. On some topics, it is impossible to get all people on the same page. Everyone knows that a decision needs to be made. However it seems like every argument that supports a decision, spark a response from those opposing the decision.
As such, I’d like to share a straightforward tool to find a clear decision faster: Force Field Analysis. Sounds fancy, but it’s actually pretty simple to use and easy to understand.
Breaking down the tool.
Finding its roots in Psychology, first described by social psychologist Kurt Lewin in 1951, it provides a visual overview of forces for and against a certain change:
- Driving Forces: Factors that support the change, leading to benefits in line with the Company Goals
- Restraining Forces: Factors that work against the desired outcome. Think of risks, issues, costs.
To use this tool, you go through the following steps:
1. Define the desired change clearly
2. List the driving forces
3. List the restraining forces
4. Rate each force
5. Visualize the forces
Taking those steps will already make it clear how in the current situation an informed decision can be made. However, to use it to it’s fullest potential you should use this first analysis as a starting point.
Refine the forces
Go through each of the driving and restraining forces. While there are no hard set rules on how much time to spend on this and how to prioritize the forces. I suggest starting with the highest scoring restraining forces. Discuss ways on how those scores could be lowered. For example through training, changing processes, involving specific human resources and so on. Do not forget that such mitigations will also introduce a cost to the change.
In much the same way, see what driving forces for change can be increased in strength. For example, by defining synergies between existing processes or scaling marketing channels that are trending.
Once the exercise has been completed, there should be a good understanding of how the change will need to be implemented, what impact it will have and the risks that will need to be addressed. But most importantly, there will be a clear overview of whether implementing the change would be a beneficial choice.