Leadership style for managing transitions as a DNP
Driving and restraining forces is not a figure of speech — it names Lewin's force field analysis. Recognising that turns question three from an opinion into an analysis with a method.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 15, 2026
Four questions, and the third one is a named technique
Four questions, and the third one is the tell. Driving forces and restraining forces is Lewin's force field analysis, a specific technique rather than a general way of talking about pressures. Naming it and using it properly lifts the whole post. The method holds that any situation is held in equilibrium between forces pushing for change and forces resisting it, and — this is the useful part — that reducing restraining forces is usually more effective than increasing driving ones, because adding pressure against unaddressed resistance produces tension rather than movement. Apply it concretely to your own setting with named forces, and weight them, since an unweighted list of six each is a diagram rather than an analysis. The fourth question also does something the first three do not: it asks what you would do, in a specific setting, rather than what you believe. That shift from position to action is where the post is assessed, so leave room for it.
The first two questions should be answered in a way that survives the fourth. On style, resist the urge to name your favourite: transitions specifically involve loss and uncertainty, so the style that fits is one that communicates repeatedly and tolerates the period where people are neither in the old way nor competent in the new one. Say which behaviours, not which label. On creating a culture that supports innovation, the honest answer is mostly about consequences — whether an attempt that fails costs the person who made it, whether there is time to try anything, whether ideas from the bedside reach anyone who can act. Then the fourth question ties it together by asking about your own capstone, so make the earlier answers specific enough to be applied there. A generic answer to question one leaves question four with nothing to build on, which is how these posts most often unravel at the end.
Likely learning objectives
Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.
- 01Recognise force field analysis and apply it as a method.
- 02Describe leadership as behaviours rather than as a label.
- 03Analyse innovation culture through consequences rather than values.
- 04Connect general answers to a specific change project.
Read the full question
Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.
Course-wide instructions that accompany this question
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes. Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages. 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DNP to manage transitions Essay One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words. I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses. Weekly Participation Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately. In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies. Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work). Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week. 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It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source. LopesWrite Policy For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me. Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes. Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own? Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score. Late Policy The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies. Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances. If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect. I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension. As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading. Communication Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class. Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours. DNP to manage transitions Essay
Turn the brief into deliverables
- 01A leadership approach described behaviourally.
- 02Conditions that make innovation survivable, stated as consequences.
- 03A weighted force field analysis of your own environment.
- 04Application of all three to your capstone or change project.
Style, culture, forces, then your own project
Leadership for transitions
Describe the behaviours that suit a period of loss and uncertainty.
A culture that supports innovation
Identify the consequences that make attempting something survivable.
Force field analysis
Name and weight the driving and restraining forces in your setting.
Applied to your project
Use the analysis to say what you would do for your own change project.
Sources for the analysis the third question wants
Recommended databases
- PubMed Central
- CINAHL
- Business Source Complete
- Your own project documentation
Search sequence
- 1.Read a primary account of force field analysis rather than a summary.
- 2.Find evidence on psychological safety and innovation in clinical teams.
- 3.Look for what distinguishes managing a transition from managing a change.
- 4.List the actual restraining forces in your setting before theorising about them.
Reference shortlist
These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.
Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.
- 01
Change Management In Health Care
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2023
Sets out the change management models including Lewin's, which is where force field analysis comes from.
- 02
Where Do Models for Change Management, Improvement and Implementation Meet? A Systematic Review of the Applications of Change Management Models in Healthcare
Journal of Healthcare Leadership · 2021
Compares change and implementation models, useful for placing force field analysis among the alternatives.
- 03
Psychological safety in an ECMO retrieval team: a qualitative study to inform improvement
BMJ Open Quality · 2024
On psychological safety in a clinical team, which is the consequence structure behind an innovation culture.
- 04
Essential elements and outcomes of psychological safety in the healthcare practice setting: A systematic review
Applied Nursing Research · 2025
A systematic review of psychological safety's outcomes in health care practice settings.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Missing that question three names a specific technique.
- Listing forces without weighting them.
- Naming a leadership style rather than describing behaviours.
- Answering the first three generically, leaving question four unsupported.
Submission checklist
- Did you name and use force field analysis?
- Are your forces weighted?
- Is the leadership answer behavioural?
- Does question four build on the earlier answers?
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Written by
Aaron Bishop
MA, Education
assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines
Aaron leads the EssayCrackers editorial desk. He works on how assignment briefs are read — what a rubric is actually asking for, and where students most often answer a different question than the one set.

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Dr. Nathan Cole
PhD, Rhetoric & Composition
Argumentation and thesis development
Nathan teaches first-year composition and directs a university writing center. He reviews EssayCrackers guides for argumentative soundness and citation accuracy.