A technique entitled the ‘Force Field Analysis’ (FFA) is the brainchild of Kurt Lewin, an American social psychologist, who conceived it in the 1950’s. Managers who have done any change management work as part of their management training, will know that the FFA is one of the most effective tools in the kit to make change happen in an organisation.

Lewin viewed that organisations are systems whose current position was never static, but in a dynamic equilibrium, or balance between opposing forces. Thus he argued that any issue was held in balance by two sets of forces; driving forces and restraining forces.

A driving force is used to promote change. They are factors pushing in a particular direction, trying affecting a situation. Restraining forces are those which are likely to resist that change. To put it simply, a manager must list all the forces for change, and list all the resistant factors. Each driving and resisting issue must be giving its own weighting, as an indicator of the strength of the force.

Once you have identified these forces that might hold your company in status quo, you can have two focused approached to making things happen. You can either take steps to increase the weight and power of the driving forces, or decrease the weight and power of the restraining ones. Thus, the equilibrium is broken and change can occur.

As you might expect from a psychologist, this model involves many different issues; culture, habits, attitudes, paradigms, skills, resources - basically anything that influences change.

In order to change or influence the forces, you may need to do all variety of things, from implementing new staff training to changing production equipment. The FFA enables you to both plan a potential change requirement, and gives you the holistic understanding to see the change through.

Good management is about absorbing, acting and re-acting. There is constant pressure on the modern manager to come up with new ideas, methods and procedures to give their organisation a competitive edge.

In order to make things happen, an effectual manager needs to be able to bring about positive change in an organisation. However, changing the status quo in an organisation, whether on a big or small scale, is not as easy as it used to be.

In the old days, with vertical hierarchies, and seniority going a long way, senior management could more easily dictate a series of new demands to the company on a top down basis and expect them to happen. That rigidity no longer holds water, businesses are too organic and evolving, and that’s why any management training course worth its salt will have a module devoted to change management.

Management training will give you some insight and tools you can use to carry out successful change management. You’ll learn about the ‘critical mass’ concept; this represents the amount of people you need to get on board to say ‘yes’ to what needs to happen. This is often less people than you think. You’ll also probably learn about something called the Force Field Analysis:

One of the most valuable business skills any change manager can learn is the use and implementation of the Force Field Analysis, a technique devised by the American social psychologist Kurt Lewin, all the way back in 1951. Unlike other panaceas of management, Lewin’s Force Field Analysis has stood the test of time, and is still used today in all successful organisations, of all shapes and sizes.

It’s a common gripe amongst managers and employee that meetings can often go on too long, waste valuable time and achieve very little. Some feel that their organisations have meetings for meetings sake, in an attempt to appear to be informing staff of things that have already been decided, and giving information that could have been more easily disseminated by email.

Used in the right way, meetings can be valuable events, bringing staff together and driving forward issues which affect and enhance the personal development and growth of both the individual and the company as a whole. Meetings that are deemed unproductive are just a sign that those holding the meeting, or those attending are not clear as to what their contribution needs to be.

The most important factor when holding a meeting is to have a clear awareness of what the specific objective of the meeting should be. This specific objective should be stated again at the start of the meeting to remind attendees what to focus their thoughts and energies on.

With organisations becoming ever more complex, with both horizontal and vertical hierarchies, it’s important that some steps up to provide leadership. The responsibility of the direction and flow of the meeting should be allocated to one individual, who takes the role of the chair person. This person will act as the facilitator and gatekeeper to the discussion, and make sure your meeting stays on track.

People may become leaders by many different methods; possibly by personality, by appointment, or even perhaps by birthright. This does not necessarily mean they are well equipped for the trials and tribulations of leadership and its demands.

Organisations are increasingly looking to expand the skills and experience of their leaders through the use of management training courses. Personal development through training will help a leader become more aware of their strengths and weaknesses and their natural team leadership styles.

Some leaders are task oriented; the focus is all about the delivery of the product or service on time and in budget no matter what the implications are. This is especially the case in high stress, fast-paced industries where little time is allocated to worrying about their colleagues.

Conversely, some leaders are much more people oriented; a lot of focus is on establishing a contented staff, and avoiding conflict and difficulty. They may be less concerned with meeting targets if there is a risk of upsetting the dynamic of the team or client.

A leader who manages to find a balance between these two orientations is likely to be the most effective in the long term. The methods they employ to achieve their goals will depend on their preferred style, which could fit into one of the following categories:

A delegating leader allows the responsibility for problem resolution and making decisions to lie with the team. They will tend to be less interventionist. This however can be a risky strategy; team members may think the leader is absolving themselves from their responsibility. This style requires the trust of the team and requires skill and confidence from the leader.

A directing leader is much the opposite. He or she is likely to give very specific instruction and will take steps to closely monitor the team. These types of leaders are usually task oriented and run the risk of being considered dictatorial, but their style can be beneficial when high stakes decisions need to be made.

A supporting leader is the one that falls in between the above. Typically they will be pro-active in providing support for the team to help them achieve their goals, using guidance and coaching. This type of leader tends to elicit a good response from their team, as successes and failures are often shared.

Whichever type of leader is currently in your organisation, and whichever natural style they may utilise, management training can help them expand their horizons. Understanding the different approaches, and knowing when to adapt them to the given situation, can give an organisation a competitive edge.

As any good management training course will teach, staff motivation is not a fluffy, ego-massaging concept, but a core tool in a manager’s repertoire to achieve results.

To be considered an effectual manager, you must be able to cultivate positive performance from your team. However, you can only motivate a team by motivating its individuals.

Collaboration and communication is vital, all too often there are ugly ‘them and us’ cultures endemic in many organisations. These cultures need to be openly and honestly dissected and dismantled, in order that management can be considered as facilitators, not obstacles by their staff.

A manger must motivate his or her people by identifying what each individual actually needs to feel and perform better. This will not always be immediately apparent as the individual may appear to ‘want’ something else – such as hike in salary.

Examples of good motivational practice for employees you can implement today:

• Ensure they are acknowledged and recognised for their achievements and don’t be afraid to make them more public.
• Find ways to reward individuals and teams for their efforts - they needn’t necessarily have direct cost implications
• Get your people involved in decision making, and give them ownership and influence in their job function and career direction
• Delegate. Allow people to be accountable and responsible for the work they do – they will step up to the challenge

Spending time and money in the motivational and personal development of employees will increase productivity, efficiency and results. These positive improvement factors in people will reflect well on the manager who manages them.