How to Use Lewin’s Force Field Analysis to Achieve Change

Kurt Lewin uses an analogy of a force field to describe how organizations maintain stability and how they change. You should use Lewin’s force field analysis to identify ways to achieve and sustain change in your organization.

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Lewin’s Force Field Analogy

Lewin uses an analogy of a force field to describe why organizations are sometimes stable, and why they sometimes change. He identified that there are always two sets of forces at work. One set drives change while the other restrains change. When the forces are equal, then organizations maintain stability. However, when the driving forces are stronger than the restraining forces, change occurs. There are two ways to achieve change. You can:

• Increase the forces driving change
• Decrease the forces restraining change

However, according to Lewin, some driving forces, such as pressure to change, increase tension and resistance. Therefore, you need to increase driving forces carefully, and you should focus on lowering restraining forces.

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Using Lewin’s Force Field Analysis

Lewin’s force field analysis involves identifying the:

• Driving forces behind your idea for change
• Restraining forces that may block the success of your idea

The exact nature of these forces will depend on your situation. However, you should focus on forces that shape people’s behavior. These include:

• People’s knowledge, skills, attitudes, beliefs, values, feelings, workloads and their competing interests
• Structural issues, such as role clarity, the reporting relationships, and the degree of autonomy that people have
• Established systems for how different things get done in your organization

Conducting Lewin’s force field analysis involves:

• Brainstorming a list of driving and restraining forces that could be in play
• Ranking the strength of each force (e.g. 1 being weak and 5 being strong)
• Highlighting those forces that have a high impact (e.g. ranking 4-5)
• Brainstorm ideas for increasing the strength of potentially strong driving forces
• Brainstorm ideas for eliminating or decreasing strong restraining forces
• Eliminating any ideas that are impractical in your situation
• Grouping similar ideas together
• Deciding which ideas represent the best of the rest

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After the Force Field Analysis

After doing the above, you need to decide whether your idea for change is worth the time, money and effort that will be required. Don’t be afraid to make the call that your idea for change is not feasible. However, if you do decide to press on, you need to involve others in conducting the above steps. You could start with your leadership team, then 1 or 2 representative staff, and then your staff. Involving others in the process is itself a way to reduce individual resistance to the change, plus people will add valuable input from their on the ground perspective.

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Note – the Force Field Analysis Is Part of a Process

It is also important to note that you should use Lewin’s force field analysis as part of a broader process for change. Treating change as a process is one of the key principles of change management. According to Lewin, such a process starts with a dissatisfaction of the existing and a broad agreement about a more desirable future. You should do this before involving staff in a force field analysis. See the 3 Stages of Change: Kurt Lewin’s Change Model for further details.

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Summing Up Lewin’s Force Field Analysis

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References

Lewin, K. (1947). Frontiers in Group Dynamics: Concepts, Method and Reality in Social Sciences, Social Equilibria and Social Change. Human Relations, 1, 5-42.