The shorter version is a PEST Analysis – missing out Legal and Environmental factors. At the end of this document is an explanation of the use of PESTLE for organisational change.
How PESTLE may be used for PDP
For PDP purposes view yourself as being ‘the organisation’ – an organisation subject to external factors, and internal factors.
1 For each of the 6 PESTLE factors brainstorm and identify 5-10 things which, based on existing knowledge, may change or are likely to change over the short term, medium term and long term.
2 Then assess/evaluate their likely impact/affect/relevance/importance on/to/for you.
- Then narrow these down and rank them for importance/priority – so that each factor has 3 most important or most likely changes.
- Then select/choose the most important or most likely 3 changes from across all factors. You may need expert knowledge for this or need to use risk analysis and/or urgency vs importancy grid.
3 Then identify if a factor and/or its impact will be external or internal. Ie can you control it (internal) or does it control you (external). Or can you influence the external factor?
4 Then identify an action plan.
The above can be carried out for a short, medium or long term timescales.
A number of PESTLE Analysis may be carried out for short term, medium term, internal and external and combined with Risk Analysis used to build up a useful picture of what the future might look like and what action we may need to take, or what the most important action which we need to take is and when we need to take it.
The key thing though is to actually take the action.
Example of how a simple grid may be used for PESTLE Analysis for your own PDP
Complete one box in LHS for each ‘thing’ which may change. Aim for 5-10 things for each of the 6 PESTLE factors. This will give you 30-60 things to look at further for your own PDP.
The traditional use of PESTLE for organisational change is as follows:
1 List external PESTLE factors for the organisation - may need to brainstorm and have expert knowledge of the organisation and/or the world outside the organisation for this.
2 Identify the implications of each PESTLE factor for the organisation.
3 Decide the importance of the implications of the external factors – ranks or rate them. Normally this involves assessing their: impact over time, impact by type (positive or negative affects) and impact by dynamics (ie is the significance/importance of the implication increasing, decreasing or remaining unchanged).
4 Rate the importance of the implication to the organisation (eg using: critical, very impt, impt, significant, unsignificant). This may be further refined by ranking the likelihood of it happening (eg using: will happen, extremely likely, very likely, likely, unlikely, remote chance of happening, will not happen).
5 Scenario building. Or ‘what if..’ Used to develop scenarios of different alternative futures for ht organisation.
