Force Field Analysis: How to Plan a Change, With a Free Template

Force field analysis is one of the simplest and most useful tools for planning a change. It takes a proposed change, lists everything pushing it forward and everything holding it back, and turns that picture into a plan. A free template is included below.

It suits any change an organisation is weighing up: a new system, a process redesign, a move to digital forms, a new site, or a decision about pursuing ISO certification itself.

What is force field analysis?

The tool comes from the work of social psychologist Kurt Lewin, whose ideas on how groups and organisations change were collected in Field Theory in Social Science (1951). Lewin saw any situation as held in balance by two sets of forces:

• Driving forces push towards the change: customer or regulator expectations, cost pressure, leadership support, new technology, a problem that keeps recurring.
• Restraining forces hold the current state in place: habit, cost, lack of time or skills, uncertainty, or worry about what the change means for people.

A change happens when the driving forces outweigh the restraining forces. Lewin’s practical insight was that pushing harder on the driving side often creates more resistance, while reducing the restraining forces tends to move things more smoothly.

How to do a force field analysis

1. Describe the change and the outcome. Write one clear sentence for the proposed change and one for the result it should achieve.
2. List the driving forces. Bring together the people affected, and include reasons, pressures, people and resources supporting the change.
3. List the restraining forces. Capture the barriers honestly, including the ones people are reluctant to say out loud.
4. Score each force. Use 1 (weak) to 5 (strong). The scores are a judgement, so agree them as a group.
5. Total both sides. The balance gives a quick read on whether the change is likely to succeed as currently planned.
6. Plan actions. For the strongest forces, decide how to strengthen a driving force or weaken a restraining one, and give each action an owner and a date.
7. Review and decide. Proceed, adjust the plan, or park the change until the conditions are better.

A worked example

A construction business wants to move incident and hazard reporting from paper forms to a mobile app. The analysis looks like this:

The driving forces total 11 and the restraining forces total 9, so the change is likely to succeed. The most valuable action sits on the restraining side: the concern about blame scores highest, and no app will lift reporting rates until people trust what happens to their reports. Our article on why workers still die from known hazards covers why reporting culture matters so much.

Free force field analysis template

Our Force Field Analysis Template (Excel) includes a how-to sheet, scored sections for driving and restraining forces with drop-down scores, automatic totals and balance, columns for actions, owners and due dates, and the worked example above in grey rows ready to overwrite.

Where force field analysis fits in ISO management systems

ISO standards do not require any particular tool, but force field analysis fits several clauses neatly:

• Planning of changes (ISO 9001 clause 6.3): changes to the management system must be carried out in a planned way, considering their purpose, consequences, resources and responsibilities. A completed analysis covers most of that in one page.
• Risks and opportunities (clause 6.1): restraining forces are often risks to the change, and driving forces point to opportunities.
• Management of change in ISO 45001 (clause 8.1.3): useful for thinking through the people side of operational changes that affect health and safety.
• Continual improvement (clause 10.3) and management review (clause 9.3): a quick way to test whether an improvement idea is ready to proceed.

It pairs well with other tools. Use context analysis (clause 4.1) and interested parties (clause 4.2) to find the forces, root cause analysis when a restraining force needs unpacking, and a risk matrix when a restraining force is really a risk that needs rating. For larger improvement programs, see ISO 9001, Six Sigma or Lean.

Tips for a useful analysis

• Involve the people who will live with the change. They know the real restraining forces.
• Keep each force specific. “Resistance to change” is too vague to act on; “supervisors worry about extra admin” can be addressed.
• Focus effort on the two or three strongest forces on each side.
• Revisit the analysis partway through the change. Forces shift as the change takes hold.

How Streamline helps

Streamline helps organisations plan and embed change inside their ISO 9001, ISO 45001 and integrated management systems, so improvements stick. Through our ISO mentoring service, we also guide in-house teams in using tools like this one with confidence. Get in touch for a conversation.

Frequently asked questions

What is force field analysis?

Force field analysis is a planning tool developed by social psychologist Kurt Lewin. It lists the forces pushing a proposed change forward (driving forces) and the forces holding it back (restraining forces), scores their strength, and uses the result to plan how to make the change happen.

How do you score a force field analysis?

Give each force a score from 1 (weak) to 5 (strong), then total the driving and restraining forces. The balance shows which side is stronger, but the real value is in the actions: how to strengthen the most useful driving forces and weaken or remove the strongest restraining forces.

When should you use force field analysis?

It works best before a significant change: a new system or process, a restructure, a new site or product, or a change to how a team works. It is also useful in management review when deciding whether to proceed with an improvement.

Does ISO 9001 require force field analysis?

No. ISO 9001 does not require any particular tool. It does require changes to the management system to be carried out in a planned way (clause 6.3), and a completed force field analysis is a simple way to show that planning happened.