Force Field Analysis Questionnaire

To run a force field analysis, use this worksheet. It identifies the driving forces pushing toward a change and the restraining forces holding the status quo, rating each from 1 (negligible) to 5 (decisive).

Run it with the people who will be restrained, not about them. A restraining forces list written by leadership alone is nearly always wrong, and its errors are systematic: leadership over-weights attitude and under-weights capacity.

See force-field-analysis.

Evidence: Weak as a measurement tool, moderate as a principle. The ratings are subjective. The underlying principle — that removing barriers changes behavior more reliably than adding pressure — is well supported by behavioral research on friction and defaults.

Step 0: State the target state

Write the change as a specific target state, not as a slogan or a value.

• Weak: "improve our safety culture"
• Strong: "every drug round is completed without interruption on ward B by 1 March"

Target state: __________________________________________________

Deadline: ______________________________________________________

Step 1: Driving forces

List each force pushing toward the target state, and rate its actual strength as experienced by the people who must change — not as intended by leadership.

Prompts:

• Question: What external pressure — regulation, competition, funding, safety incident — is pushing this? [ ]
• Question: What internal dissatisfaction with the current state genuinely exists among the people who must change? [ ]
• Question: What do people personally gain if this happens? [ ]
• Question: Who with authority is actively pushing, as opposed to nominally sponsoring? [ ]

Step 2: Restraining forces

The more important half. Rate the strength of each force holding the status quo in place.

Prompts, ordered by how often each turns out to be the real constraint:

1. Capacity

• Question: Do people have any slack at all in which to do something differently? (Rate the strength of the restraint: 5 means no slack whatsoever.)
  • Rating (1–5): [ ]

2. Physical and technical constraints

• Question: What in the environment — rooms, rotas, distances, equipment, systems, licences, access — makes the new behavior slower or harder than the old one?
  • Rating (1–5): [ ]

3. Rewards

• Question: Does anything in the measurement, target, or recognition system still pay for the old behavior?
  • Rating (1–5): [ ]

4. Loss

• Question: Who loses status, autonomy, competence, relationships, routine, or professional identity if this happens?
  • Rating (1–5): [ ]

5. Capability

• Question: Is there a genuine skill gap that nobody wants to admit to?
  • Rating (1–5): [ ]

6. History

• Question: Has something like this been tried here before? What happened to it, and what happened to the people who championed it?
  • Rating (1–5): [ ]

7. Legitimate objection

• Question: Is there a substantive reason to think this change is wrong or will not work in these conditions?
  • Rating (1–5): [ ]

Step 3: Analysis and action

• Total the two columns. If restraining exceeds driving, nothing will move, and adding communication will not change that.

• Work the restraining list first. For each force, decide: remove it, weaken it, or convert it into a driving force. Only after that consider adding driving force. Added pressure raises tension in the system and provokes counter-pressure; removing a barrier does not.

• Assign every restraining force a named owner and a date, or the analysis is decorative. This single step is the difference between a useful session and a flip chart nobody looks at again.

• If Capacity scored 4 or 5, stop and address it. People are not resisting; they have no room. Every other intervention will fail against this one, and will be misattributed to attitude.

• If Rewards scored 4 or 5, the change is being asked for and paid against. Fix the measurement before asking again.

• Take the legitimate objection seriously. If item 7 scores 3 or above, test the objection on its merits before treating it as resistance. Sometimes the people closest to the work are right, and discovering that is the most valuable outcome this exercise can produce.

• Re-run it after four weeks. Forces change as the change proceeds, and a static snapshot goes stale quickly.