Blueprint Action #5: Identify Influencers, Energizers, and Blockers
In every organization there are go-to people who make everything work. They are the subject matter experts, the influencers, the energizers—the people the company can least afford to lose. Yet, ask senior leaders who those people are, and research shows they can’t identify the majority of them. That’s because the go-to people are often buried in the hierarchy, adding tremendous value without recognition, and surprisingly are often introverts, not extroverts.
How do you uncover and leverage these hidden superstars?
An increasing number of companies conduct an organizational network analysis (ONA). A company can identify its true influencers and energizers by tracking and mapping the day-to-day workflow, collaboration, and expertise sharing. As Professor Rob Cross, the foremost expert on ONA and co-manager with i4cp of the Connected Commons consortium, describes it: “ONA can provide an X-ray into the inner workings of an organization—a powerful means of making invisible patterns of information flow and collaboration in strategically important groups visible.”
And while such analysis offers many benefits, if you are trying to affect culture change, it can also help identify potential culture ambassadors.
When renovating culture, it’s important to identify these potential champions and make sure they are enlisted as proponents of the change, because these hidden stars will likely have influence on a significant proportion of the workforce. They are the people who provide informal leadership, span organizational boundaries, and unleash the latent passion in the workforce. By conducting an ONA, those indispensable people are illuminated through a simple survey or through the analysis of interactions on internal communication platforms (like e-mail, Slack, Teams, etc.).
Simultaneously, it’s equally important to identify blockers. These people may be bottlenecks for communication, or worse, could be naysayers with the power to stop a culture renovation in its tracks. Knowing who these people are and working with or around them (or in some cases removing them entirely) is a step that should not be overlooked.
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article was originally published on CultureRenovation.com. Visit the website for additional resources, solutions, and information about the bestselling book.
Kevin is CEO and co-founder of the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), the world’s leading human capital research firm focusing on people practices that drive high performance. i4cp conducts more research in the field of HR than any other organization on the planet, highlighting next practices that organizations and HR executives should consider adopting.
Kevin is also the author of Culture Renovation®, an Amazon bestseller which debuted as the #1 new release in a dozen Amazon book categories. Drawing on data from one of the largest studies ever conducted on corporate culture, Culture Renovation™ details how high-performance organizations such as Microsoft, T-Mobile, 3M, AbbVie, Mastercard and many more have successfully changed organizational culture.
Kevin is currently on the board of Performitiv, and on the advisory boards of Guild Education and Sanctuary. Kevin was previously on the board of directors of KnowledgeAdvisors, a provider of human capital analytics software, which was purchased by Corporate Executive Board in March of 2014. Kevin was also the Chairman of Jambok, a social learning start-up company which was founded at Sun Microsystems and was purchased by SuccessFactors in March 2011. Additionally, Kevin served on the boards of Workforce Insight and Koru prior to their sales.
Kevin is on the board of Best Buddies Washington and helped establish the first office for Best Buddies in the state in 2019. Best Buddies is a nonprofit organization dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development, and inclusive living for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
Kevin was previously the Founder and the President of SumTotal Systems (NASDAQ: SUMT) which he helped create in 2003 by merging Click2learn (NASDAQ: CLKS) with Docent (NASDAQ: DCNT). The merger won Frost & Sullivan's Competitive Strategy Award in 2004.
Prior to the formation of SumTotal, Kevin was the Chairman & CEO of Click2learn, which was founded by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. Kevin helped take Click2learn public and engineered over a dozen acquisitions post-IPO. Prior to joining Click2learn, Kevin was president and founder of Oakes Interactive in Needham, MA. Oakes Interactive was purchased by Click2learn (then called Asymetrix) in 1997, prior to going public a year later.