Academic Leadership

Academic Leadership: Fundamental Building Blocks

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It is important to consider not only the length of the list but also the weight of each item.

For example, the forces driving globalisation are far greater than the increased

paperwork and administration that would occur as a result of the change.

You can draw up such a list on your own or with your program team. Once the list

has been developed, it is useful to retain only the items that are controllable and

manageable.

For the change process to be successful, the drivers for change must exceed the

resisting forces. If there is an imbalance favouring ‘no change’, additional driving forces

can be identified and enacted. Alternatively, it may be possible to minimise in some way

or to remove some of the resisting forces. As noted by Quinn, Faerman, Thompson, and

McGrath (2003), research shows that minimising or removing the resisting forces is most

effective in driving change forwards.

Activity

Step 1

Consider a change you would like to introduce in a program or course. Develop a force

field analysis for this change using the Figure 13 as a guide.

FIGURE 13: Template for a Force Field Analysis