Kurt Lewin’s Force Field analysis is a change management tool which can be used by management for the implementation of large-scale change.

• In order to use the model, the business must first label the change in a central box.

• On the left-hand side, the business should identify the driving forces towards change e.g. changes in PEST factors, current declining financial performance.

  • Each of these in turn should be weighted against a subjective scale of 1-5, with 5 being strong forces (the scale can really be any numbers, as long as the same scale is used for the entire analysis). The combined weight of these drivers should then be totalled at the bottom.

• The management team should then identify and weigh all the ‘resistance’ forces acting against the change.

• If the total of the restraining forces is greater than the drivers, the change is unlikely to be successful in its implementation and management should look for methods to minimise the restraining forces, before driving the change.

• The strength of this model is its simplicity.

• The model provides a visual representation of the forces driving and pushing back against the change.