Category: Tools

The power-interest grid

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In the previous post I talked about stakeholders – those who have a vested interest in what you do and that can affect or be affected by any decision or change you want to make.

Stakeholders have great importance because of the power they may have to influence your decisions.  For example, your manager might have the power to stop you from doing something, or you might need their support to get something done.

So before you make a change, it’s worth thinking about your stakeholders in terms of:

  • their power to help or hinder the change, and
  • their interest in you and your change.

There is a well-known tool that can help with this called the ‘power-interest’ grid.  It looks like this:

2 x 2 grid with 'power' on vertical axis and 'interest' on horizontal axis

So take your list of stakeholders, and place each one where you think they are on the grid.  This will tell you the strategy you will need to take with them.

  • Low power, low interest – you don’t have to expend any effort for these people. They’re not too bothered, but monitor them in case things change.
  • High interest, low power – these people should be kept informed of what’s going on, but they can’t do much to influence the change.
  • Higher power, low interest – you need to keep these people informed and satisfied, because although they don’t have much interest, they may use their power in an undesirable way.
  • High interest, higher power – these are the people you need to take most care and effort with.  Manage them closely, keep them informed and fully engage with them.

Your grid will start to look like this.  You can add an extra dimension with colour coding (green=’supportive’, amber = ‘neutral’, red = ‘against’). 

example of a semi-complete power-interest grid

Remember this is just a snapshot of where your stakeholders are now.  Things can change so you need to regularly revisit this.  This tool might also tell you if there are any gaps, or whether you need to try and move stakeholders into a different quadrant.  For example, do you need someone with power to sponsor your project?  How can you move that person to the ‘high-power, high interest’ area?

Like any tool, its main use is in getting you thinking and planning.  And the results are only as good as the information you put in.  You might do this based on your own experience with your stakeholders, or you might go out and talk to your stakeholders to get a better understanding of their thinking.

So think carefully about your shareholders the next time you or your team are thinking of embarking on a change and see if it makes a difference.

The Change Formula

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Man looking at two vials of blue liquid

There’s another handy model for seeing how easy or difficult your planned change is going to be.  It’s this:

D x V x F > R

Let me explain.  This equation was developed by Beckhard and Harris (1977, 1987) building on work from Gleicher.  It summarises the three things they state are necessary for change to occur.

  1. Dissatisfaction (D).  There needs to be dissatisfaction with the current situation.  Is it bad enough that people recognise that something has to change?
  2. Vision (V).  People need to have a clear vision of a different future which is better than the current situation.
  3. First steps (F).  People are able to see the practical actions they can take as first steps in the change journey.  There’s no point having a clear vision without having feasible steps to get there.

The other side of the equation is Resistance (R).  I’ve explained before that change is potentially threatening so it’s human and natural to resist change.

If the combined strength of the 3 factors on the left hand side of the equation is greater than the existing resistance to change, the change will happen.

The beauty of writing this as an equation is you can immediately see that all three elements are required for change to occur. If D or V or F are zero, the left hand side of the equation will be zero, and this tells you you’re unlikely to overcome the natural resistance to any change. 

Being aware that these three factors are necessary for change can be very helpful.  Just like Force Field Analysis, this can be used as a decision making tool. Is it worth trying to make the change if one or more of these factors is absent? It can also then highlight where you need to focus your attention.  For example:

  • if you’re trying to introduce a change in an organisation or group and there is little dissatisfaction with the status quo, how can you create or increase this?  Can you highlight what’s wrong or how it could be better, to create this dissatisfaction?
  • If people are dissatisfied with the current situation but don’t know how it could be better, do you need to focus on communicating the vision?
  • And if the issue is not being aware of the actions to take, how can you work with people to create feasible action plans?

So this simple equation can be very helpful to keep in mind when you’re trying to make a change. Or if you’re struggling to make a change, it might give you some insight as to why.

References

Beckhard, R. F. and Harris, R. T. (1987) Organizational Transitions: Managing complex change, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley

Use the Force

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two lego stormtroopers pushing on opposite sides of an egg

Whether you’re trying to make a change as an individual, or trying to lead a team or organisation through a change, you want to know what you’re up against.  You want to know how easy or difficult it’s going to be, and how you can put the odds in favour of making the change.

There are a couple of tools that may be helpful here.  The first is Force Field Analysis, which developed from Kurt Lewin’s work in the 1940s and ‘50s.

Lewin posited that our current situation (the status quo) is maintained by the forces acting on us, and any change in our behaviour stems from changes in these forces.  Our environment is constantly changing, so the forces acting on us are constantly changing and we adapt.

Lewin suggested that if you could establish what these forces were, you could understand what forces needed to be diminished or strengthened to bring about change.

Diagram showing visual representation of force field analysis.
©2020 Joanna Candler

So a force field analysis is a way of visually representing the forces that support or act as obstacles to any proposed change. 

Here’s what to do:

  1. Identify the change you’re proposing.  Then,
  2. Brainstorm/list all forces that are pushing for the change (the driving forces) or preventing the change (the restraining forces)
  3. Draw a diagram like the one above.  On the left side side list the driving forces, on the right the restraining forces.
  4. Consider the strength of each of the forces.  You can either represent this visually, by drawing larger or smaller arrows (as above).  Or another way is to give each force a value from 1 (low) to 5 (high)
  5. Look at the balance for each side.  If using scores, add up the score for each side to get a total.

You should have something like this: 

If the forces for change are higher than the forces against the change, you are likely to be successful in making the change.  The change above looks likely to succeed, as 16>12.  However, if the forces against are higher, you’re likely to struggle. 

So this tool is often used for decision making – is it worth trying to make the change at all?  Are the forces against too strong to make the attempt?

Now comes the important part. 

Brainstorm how you can either increase the driving forces, or decrease the restraining forces, so you have a better chance of the change being successful.  (NB Focus on reducing the restraining forces.  If you increase the driving forces, the restraining forces may also increase, thereby maintaining the equilibrium.  The more you push someone to do something, the more they may resist!)

Now you have some practical actions to take before you make the change, to give you a better chance of making the change successfully.

So this is a handy tool before you start on any change journey to help you see the forces acting on you, and to give you ideas on how to push the odds in favour of the change.  You’ve probably noticed that it’s not particularly scientific.  Unless you’ve done some market research, you’re relying on brainstorming and guesswork.  That said, like any tool, it makes you stop, think and plan, and for teams it helps stimulate discussion.

Give it a try when you’re next planning to make a change, and see what you think.

What a SWOT!

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woman sitting at a train station looking at a map

I mentioned previously that a lot of traditional change management models seem to boil down to how to move from A (where we are now) to B (where we want to be).

diagram showing current state transitioning to new state

In order to know where we want to go, we first have to understand where we are now. What’s our current situation, and how then might we need to change to have a better future?

A well-known tool for getting a better understanding of where you, your team, or your organisation is now, is a SWOT analysis. You’ve probably already heard of this, or completed one in your workplace.  This is where you brainstorm your current Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Your strengths and weaknesses are internal factors A useful starting point is to ask yourself questions for each section.  For example, if you were doing this for your own personal development you could ask:

Strengths – What am I good at?  What do I find easy? What knowledge do I have?  What do people praise me for?

Weaknesses – What do I struggle with? What do I hate doing? Where are gaps in my knowledge?

SWOT questions

Opportunities and threats are external factors I’ve already talked about using PEST to analyse your current environment, and the outcome of your PEST analysis can help you complete the Opportunities and Threats sections of your SWOT analysis.

Beware subjectivity!

We are often unaware of our real strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps because we find something easy, we don’t realise that it’s a strength.  Or we have blind spots and we don’t realise the things we are doing that may be holding us back.

So it’s important to gather data for your SWOT to become more aware of what’s really going on.  What evidence do you already have, and where might you need more data? 

If you’re brave, you can ask friends, family and/or colleagues for feedback to discover how other people view your strengths and weaknesses.  You can also take diagnostic tests or complete questionnaires (eg a personality test) to discover more about what you are like.  This is where a coach can help, and a programme of coaching or personal development often starts with diagnostic tools or exercises to help you discover more about yourself. 

So what?

Like any tool, just completing a SWOT doesn’t give you the answers. But taking the time to think through each of these areas should not only give you a better understanding of your current position (A), it should also start to give you ideas about where you need to go (B).  How you can capitalise on your strengths, overcome some of your weaknesses, make the most of any opportunities, and try and minimise the threats?

Further resources:

CIPD (2020) SWOT Analysis
Mind Tools – SWOT Analysis

References

Bassot, B. (2016) The Reflective Practice Guide: an interdisciplinary approach to critical reflection, London: Routledge

Watch out for PESTs

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snail sculpture on a roof

I mentioned when talking about the brain that humans are constantly scanning the environment for changes to see whether they might indicate a threat or a reward.

However, on a day-to-day basis we often get on with our habitual routines of daily living, and we may fail to be aware of what’s going on in our wider environment.  In the previous post I explained that things are constantly changing and so there is a need for us to be aware of these ‘big picture’ changes so we can adapt as individuals, teams or organisations.

One well-known tool that can help us is PEST analysis.  PEST enables us to stop and consider in turn what’s happening in the Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural, and Technological aspects of our environment.

Doing a PEST Analysis

To do a PEST analysis, go through each of these areas in turn and brainstorm what’s happening that might be most relevant to you or your organisation.  Doing this will also help you discover where you are lacking information and may need to do some research. 

Here are some questions you might consider:

Political – eg What’s happening with government policy, regulations and laws? How stable is the political environment?  What’s the likelihood of change in the next election?

Economic – eg What’s happening in the economy?  Is it growing or declining? How stable is it?  What is the exchange rate, wage levels, borrowing rate, cost of living, level of unemployment?  How easy is it to access credit?

Socio-cultural – What are current social norms and expectations?  Consider social attitudes, levels of education, health and lifestyle choices. What about demographics? Is the population increasing or decreasing?  What proportion are young/old?

Technological – What new technologies are available?  How is use of technology changing?  (eg for remote working)

You can also go further by increasing PEST to PESTLE, which adds:

Legal – What are potential changes to legislation affecting you or your business?

Environmental – What’s happening with waste/recycling, energy consumption, renewable resources, pollution?

(NB It’s likely that you’ll find some overlap when you try to do this exercise as some items can fit into more than one area.)

So what?

Like any tool, doing this exercise won’t tell us directly what we need to do with the information we find.  That’s the next step.  Once you’ve done your PEST analysis, you should then consider how you might take advantage of any opportunities you discover, as well as overcome or avoid any potential threats.

At an individual level, you might use this to think about your next career move.  What’s on the horizon that might make one job or career more attractive than another?  At the organisational level you might consider what products or services you should develop or remove.  So this helps with strategy and planning, or can be used as input into a SWOT analysis (see an upcoming post).

Of course, this analysis just gives us a snapshot of what’s happening in the environment now. You will need to re-do this regularly to make sure you’re keeping up with all the the constant change.

Further reading:

CIPD (2020), PESTLE analysis [accessed 02/07/20] (requires log-in (free))