Purpose
A force field analysis is used to identify the forces and factors that will support, or work against the solution of a problem, so that the positives can be reinforced and the negatives overcome or eliminated.

How does it work ?

• Presents positive and negative aspects of a situation so that they are easily compared.
• Causes all of the people involved to think about all of the aspects of making the desired action a permanent one.
• Generates agreement on the priority of the ' forces' on each side of the sheet.

Method

1) Draw a large T on a flip-chart. To the right of the T, write the description of the situation you would like to achieve.

2) Brainstorm the forces that are driving you towards the ideal situation. List them on the left side of the T. ( These forces may be internal or external )

3) Brainstorm the forces that are preventing movement towards the ideal. List them on the right side.

4) Prioritise the driving forces that can be strengthened or identify the restraining forces, which, if removed, would allow the most movement towards the ideal state.

Points

• When identifying a target for change, simply pushing the positive factors can have the opposite effect. Removing barriers can generally be more useful as this tends to release the positive factors rather than just trying to push them through.