Drivers and Levers of Change

Covering Assessment Criterion 2.3 of 5CO01, this video examines the forces that prompt organisational change and the practical mechanisms available to respond to them. It distinguishes between drivers originating in the wider macro environment — including technological innovation, economic conditions, demographic shifts, and regulatory change — and those arising in the task environment, such as competitor strategies, customer expectations, and stakeholder demands. Internal drivers, among them leadership changes, capability gaps, cultural issues, and structural inefficiencies, form a third distinct category, and the video addresses all three layers in turn.

The second half of the video moves from diagnosis to action, covering the levers through which change is actually implemented. Structural levers, systems and process levers, cultural levers, people levers, and leadership levers are each treated as discrete mechanisms with different implications for how work is organised, how behaviour shifts, and where accountability sits. The video also touches on how the choice of lever connects to the nature of the change being pursued, including whether that change is radical or incremental, planned or emergent, reactive or proactive.

Throughout, the video situates these drivers and levers within recognised change management frameworks. Lewin's three-step model and Kotter's eight-stage model are both named in the context of selecting approaches appropriate to a given situation, with the video prompting practitioners to weigh factors such as organisational change history, urgency, anticipated resistance, and certainty about the desired end state. The human dimension of change — and the judgement required when integrating multiple models — runs as a consistent theme across the discussion of both drivers and levers.