Around 9 months ago, I wrote this blog on being clear Untapped power networks in change efforts ; and the impact that it can have on any change effort. Since then, I have been lucky enough to work with a client who in the midst of their change effort, mapped the degree of influence that each employee has, using a sophisticated mapping tool.
This is fascinating stuff for a number of reasons; both what it says about who has influence and those that don’t. And of course, it is never who you expect.
The mapping tool sends out a survey to all employees; and asks them a series of questions. For example: Who they communicate with? Who is their “go to person” when they need information? Which colleagues do they socialize with outside of work? It then went onto ask information about departments and their degree of influence and cooperation.
The results showed two sorts of influence – “functional influence” (that is, you are in a position that requires a significant or broad interaction with a wide group of people) and the more traditional “power influencers”, often (but by no means always) a result of structural or organizational design.
It’s always been pretty clear that any good change effort should consider the power or change influencers (formal and informal). Good change efforts should also include impact assessments.
What’s interesting about this is that it takes positions that may not fall into either of those two categories, using the notion of functional influence – targeting people that may not be charismatic leaders, may not be the shop stewards, may not be the team leaders; but who nevertheless “touch” a significant number of people every day through their interactions. For example – the accounts payable clerk, the receptionist, the mail clerk. Positions that may not typically get recognised and included as part of a typical change influencers network.
Just imagine if all the people in these positions had up to date information on the change effort and were actively engaged up front..
What would that do to the resistance phase of change, I wonder.
