NU 451 leading change: Lewin and force field analysis
Describe a change you believe should be implemented in your workplace, set out the steps you would take as unit manager to facilitate it under Lewin's model, and hypothesise the facilitators and barriers a Force Field Analysis would surface.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 13, 2026
Three stages, and what each one actually costs
Pick a change small enough to describe concretely, because every later part of the post depends on having that specificity to work with. A vague aspiration to improve communication gives you nothing to unfreeze and no forces to weigh; a change to bedside handover on one unit, or to a standardised skin assessment on admission, gives you both. Lewin's three stages then map onto real activity. Unfreezing is the effort to make the current state feel untenable: showing staff the data on the present practice, surfacing what the existing routine costs, and building enough dissatisfaction that people are willing to move. Changing is the implementation itself, with education, trial, support and rapid feedback. Refreezing is what makes it stick — embedding the new practice in policy, orientation, audit and the way performance is reviewed, which is the stage most posts skip and where most real changes quietly fail.
The Force Field Analysis is a weighing exercise, not a list. Driving forces might be regulatory pressure, an adverse event, staff frustration with the current process, or clear evidence of benefit; restraining forces might be workload, scepticism, cost, competing initiatives, or a scheduling constraint that makes the new step genuinely harder. The prompt asks how you would use the information, and that is the discriminating part: the analysis is useful because reducing a restraining force usually moves the equilibrium further than adding another driving force, since pushing harder against resistance tends to increase it. Say which specific barrier you would target first and how, and validate the reasoning with APA citations as the instructions require. The peer responses are scored alongside the post, and they ask specifically about other factors within the three stages and about your judgement on whether the change would succeed, so leaving your forces explicit and weighted gives classmates something concrete to argue with.
Likely learning objectives
Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.
- 01Select a workplace change specific enough to plan.
- 02Apply Lewin's three stages as distinct bodies of work.
- 03Distinguish driving from restraining forces in a specific setting.
- 04Explain why reducing restraining forces often outperforms increasing driving forces.
- 05Support change management reasoning with cited evidence.
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Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.
Course-wide instructions that accompany this question
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Turn the brief into deliverables
- 01A described change, big or small, that should be implemented in your workplace.
- 02The steps you would take as unit manager to facilitate it, mapped to Lewin's stages.
- 03Hypothesised facilitators and barriers from a Force Field Analysis.
- 04An explanation of how you would use that analysis.
- 05APA citations and references, and responses to a minimum of two peers.
The change, the stages, the force field
The proposed change
One specific practice change on one unit, with why it is needed.
Unfreezing
Data, dialogue and dissatisfaction that make the current state untenable.
Changing
Education, trial, support and feedback during implementation.
Refreezing
Policy, orientation, audit and performance review that embed the new practice.
Force Field Analysis
Driving and restraining forces for this change in this setting, weighed.
Using the analysis
Which restraining force to reduce first, and how.
Change theory and implementation evidence
Recommended databases
- CINAHL
- AHRQ
- American Organization for Nursing Leadership
- PubMed
- Course readings on Lewin
Search sequence
- 1.Re-read the course account of Lewin's stages and Force Field Analysis for the expected terminology.
- 2.Search CINAHL for a recent nursing application of Lewin's model to a practice change.
- 3.Check AHRQ implementation resources for what sustains a change after implementation.
- 4.Read AONL leadership competencies for what a unit manager is expected to do in change.
- 5.Identify data you could actually show staff during the unfreezing stage.
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
AONL Nurse Leader Core Competencies
American Organization for Nursing Leadership · 2024
What a nurse manager is formally expected to do when leading change on a unit.
- 02
Patient Safety 101
AHRQ PSNet · 2025
Why system-level change outperforms exhortation, which supports the restraining-force argument.
- 03
TeamSTEPPS 3.0
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality · 2024
An implementation framework with sustainment activities, useful for the refreezing stage.
- 04
Nursing Scope and Standards of Practice
American Nurses Association · 2021
The professional standards a proposed practice change must remain consistent with.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Choosing a change too vague to unfreeze, such as better communication.
- Treating unfreezing as announcing the change rather than building readiness.
- Skipping refreezing, which is where most implemented changes are actually lost.
- Listing forces without weighing them or saying which to act on.
- Proposing to overcome resistance by increasing pressure, which usually strengthens it.
- Posting without citations when the instructions require validated opinions in APA format.
Submission checklist
- The change is described concretely enough to plan.
- All three Lewin stages are addressed with distinct activity.
- Refreezing includes an embedding mechanism such as policy, orientation or audit.
- Driving and restraining forces are both identified for this specific setting.
- The post says which force would be targeted first and why.
- APA citations appear, and two peer responses are posted.
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Written by
Aaron Bishop
MA, Education
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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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PhD, Rhetoric & Composition
Argumentation and thesis development
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