Your Industry Through the PESTLE Lens

Apply the PESTLE framework to your own industry or organisation — and find out which forces you may be underestimating.

Choose Your Two Axes

From the six PESTLE categories, pick the TWO that most affect your industry right now and write them as your X-axis (left = low impact, right = high impact) and Y-axis (bottom = slow-moving, top = fast-moving).

List Your Forces

Write five or six specific external forces currently affecting your organisation — one concrete example per PESTLE letter you can name from your own experience.

Place Every Force on the Grid

Plot each force from Step 2 onto the quadrant using your two axes — be honest about where each one actually sits, not where you would prefer it to sit.

Fast-moving

Slow-moving

Low impact

High impact

Interrogate the Map

Which quadrant is fullest? Which is emptiest? Look back at Step 2 — does any force you listed belong in a different position now that you can see the whole picture? Move it and note why.

Fullest quadrant

Emptiest quadrant — what does the gap reveal?

Name the Blind Spot

Which single quadrant does your organisation consistently avoid discussing in meetings — and what one word names the reason it stays unspoken?

Why that word?

Discuss Tell your partner: which force on your grid worries you most — and which one do you think your leadership team is underestimating?

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