hi there in this topic video we're going to take a look at an important theoretical model that's really useful when you're answering questions on change management and it's called lewin's model of force field analysis the essential element of the force-field analysis model looks at the balance between the forces that are pushing or driving for change in a business or organization and the restraining forces the forces that are in some ways perhaps being stubborn trying to resist the change that is being looked for so force field analysis tries to assess the balance between these two different driving and resisting forces here is the guy who came up with the model some time ago lewin was an american uh social psychologist who had a strong interest in organizational behavior and in particular his research around how businesses were able to successfully adapt and be flexible to their rapidly changing external environment looking at examples of businesses that succeeded in implementing change compared with those who found themselves in difficulties for being resistant to change and inflexible and this model is a really simple one to understand you don't need lots of detail the key to understand is to remember there's two parts to the force field the parts on the left are those forces which are pushing for change what were known as the driving forces and we'll have a look at a few of those in a minute against those forces were those which resist change what were called restraining forces so you can see the model is essentially a balance between the forces on the left pushing in are they stronger or weaker than the forces on the right now when we think about change of course they're going to be a variety of different forces on both sides and the basic idea of lewin's model was to try in some way to weight or score those forces for example you might have three forces on the left pushing for change maybe one scored five in other words a strong force maybe one was scored three and one was scored one added together that would be nine against them the forces of resistance may be three forces but added together only equaling seven so in this situation lewin would say that the forces for change are greater than the forces resisting change and therefore change is possible so the key output from the model is to try to see what the difference is between the two forces if they are in equilibrium there'll be no change however if it's possible to find a way of making the driving force greater than the restraining force then change and change management programs are more likely to succeed and of course the key output from that is that what management have to do is to try to re to reduce the forces that are resisting change now of course on the left-hand side of the model you can imagine lots of different factors within any business that may be pushing for change internal forces that are within the control of the business might include a desire amongst the management and the board or shareholders for much higher financial returns perhaps higher profits or better cash flow it could well be that there's a perceived lack of innovation or poor efficiency and productivity in the business which is causing management to push for significant change and of course it can also be driven by the need to change the organizational culture perhaps through new leadership but don't forget change can also be driven by the external environment so external forces which are outside of the control of the business for example something within the market maybe a change in the way that consumers demand the product certainly the actions of the competition and of course in our classic pastel model we'll be looking for changes in things like the political economic legislative social and technological areas so there are lots of factors and forces that drive change in the business but of course as we know in many businesses and organizations change is resisted employees staff customers other stakeholders in the business are stubborn and of course a degree of resistance to any kind of change is is perfectly normal since change is uh can be stressful for those involved nearly always is and it certainly has a disruptive impact on an organization and of course it's it's right that change is challenged particularly if the proposed change is inappropriate for the business however of course it's also true that change is often the factor that is the impediment that slows the achievement of what the business or organization is trying to achieve what's known as the organizational or corporate objectives cotter and schlesligen identified a useful series of factors that explain why change is resisted including factors such as poor communications for example staff for employees simply not understanding the nature of the change that's required perhaps not understanding the problems that the business faces of course self-interest comes into play doesn't it if you're if you've got a role maybe a managerial role in a business where the change may result in that job being lost you've clearly got an interest in resisting but it could also just simply be the uncertainty the disagreement to the uncertainty about whether change is required and what's the best way to achieve it so this is where the force field analysis model comes in really useful to help set the scene for determining whether a change management program is possible and for you guys all you really need to remember as i say is the forces for change are they greater than or less than the forces resisting change let's just take a minute just to have a quick look at a simple example a really good example which was the change that has taken place at the uk's royal mail now when moya green was appointed as ceo back in 2010 i think it was she faced some significant challenges both in the internal and external environment there were lots of forces pushing for change the government had recently deregulated the parcels market bringing lots more competition into the market there was also a political desire to achieve the privatization of the royal mail once it had been turned around and partly if the reason for this was that the royal mail or certain parts of it were heavily loss-making so there was a strong financial incentive to achieve a significant change in financial performance but what moy green had also to do was to identify the forces that would be resisting any proposed operational cultural organizational change not the least being an industry that was uh and to some extent still is heavily utilized unionized with a culture that was pretty ingrained with many people within the royal mail having worked there for a long time but also significant uncertainty amongst the workforce as to what change would mean having having it being explained that it would almost inevitably result in a significant number of job losses particularly as a result of the automation process that moya green was trying to push through now as you look at the royal mail case study you'll soon see that moy green was over the long term over a number of years highly successful in reducing the forces resisting change and allowing the forces for change to take effect and therefore making her quesadillas leader at royal mail one of the one of the most interesting and certainly one of the best examples of how new leadership can affect significant change but it's a great example of the field analysis model in action so there we go that's just a brief introduction to an overview of an important theoretical model that really helps you build the quality of your business analysis when you're looking at questions concerning change management we've just looked at lewin's model of force field analysis