How to Create and Use a Force Diagram to Foster Change

Leadership is often charged with delivering change. Force diagrams are a tool leaders can use to think about how to help an organization escape the status quo and move forward in a desired direction. They’re also a good tool for dialogue with a group, and securing group ownership of a change process. 

Here’s a completed force diagram about an organization which aims to change its core behaviors to meet a new business challenge more successfully: 

Status quo is represented by the horizontal blue line; the desired future (different) direction are represented by the horizontal green lines.  

Status quo has staying power – it’s worked in the past, and is the result of many decisions and habitual patterns established over time. Some of these are called out by the vertical blue arrows. The future direction factors (the green vertical arrows) must become stronger than the status quo for the organization to move in that direction.  

I hope you can see how this format helps you and others “see” more clearly what is going on, and plan what actions you will take in the future to foster change in the desired direction.  

Here’s how to build a diagram like this, for yourself, or as a working team.

First, sketch the framework:

Second, identify the constraining forces which tend to preserve the status quo:

Third, add the change forces which can move the organization in the desired direction:

Fourth, think about what you can do to strengthen the change forces and weaken the constraining forces.  

You’ll find this is an excellent tool in your leadership kit when you need to foster organizational change. (By the way, it’s also a great tool for mapping out your personal changes (e.g., building a more positive set of habits.)