Agile Retrospectives

6.2 Activity: Force Field Analysis

Use this in conjunction with an activity that suggests possible changes while generating insights for a release or project retrospective. Use this as part of a planning exercise while deciding what to do.

Purpose

To examine what factors in the organization will support a proposed change and which will inhibit the change.

Time Needed

Forty-five to sixty minutes depending on the complexity of the issue and the size of the group.

Description

The team defines a desired state they want to achieve. Small groups work to identify the factors that could either restrain or drive the change they want. The factors are listed on a poster; then the group assesses the strength of each supporting factor relative to the other supporting factors and repeats the process for inhibiting factors. The team discusses which factors they can influence—either by increasing the strength of a supporting factor or by reducing the strength of an inhibiting factor.

Steps

1. Introduce the activity by saying “If we want this change to succeed, we need to understand more about the factors that will support or inhibit the change.”

2. Describe the process.

   Break into small groups (no more than four).

   “Each group works for __ minutes to identify factors that will drive or support the change.”

   “We’ll do a round-robin report of what you discover and post the results. Then we’ll repeat the process for restraining or inhibiting factors.”

   “After we’ve listed both sets of ...