Change management: 3 habits of successful leaders

Looking at a company’s organizational chart may tell you where official responsibility lies and the formal reporting structures. But it does not tell you how an organization really runs. Every organization has unofficial hierarchies and social networks of communication. These are self-organizing groups of people who have developed trust – and they are the paths of how communication and knowledge are actually passed through an organization.

These unofficial hierarchies are also the key elements to successful organizational change management, as it is through these hierarchies that corporate buy-in and trust occurs. Using these unofficial hierarchies is especially important when implementing organizational change, such as going through digital transformation and technology implementation. Success in the technology era will not occur without buy-in from the organization’s people– and that requires tapping into the company’s unofficial hierarchy. So how can a company do that?

Every informal social network has what are known as “connectors.” These are individuals within your organization who represent hubs of the network. They know large numbers of people, are the most highly connected individuals in a network, have direct ties to other individuals, and are most influential. Think of these individuals as social equivalents to a computer network hub.

These are the people to target in order to effect rapid change within an organization. Once you have their buy-in, they will do the work for you. They will rapidly pass on new information to their social network. Implementing rapid organizational change, whether a new policy or new system, lies in getting these hubs of the informal social network to understand and support the change. They will be the ones who will unofficially explain and sell the idea to the rest of the staff.

Using social networks or hubs for fast change management is not a new idea. It is actually supported by science, by both something called Social Network Theory as well as the 80/20 Principle, also known as The Pareto Principle. This principle tells us that most of the work (roughly 80 percent) will be done by a small number of people (roughly 20 percent). That is why these individuals are vital, even though they are few in number.

Social network theory is the study of how people, organizations, and groups interact, and it tells us that to pass information through the network the key is to get it to the network hubs. Identify the network hubs, pitch the change, and get their buy-in, and you are well on the way to making rapid change happen and stick within your organization.

So how do you identify connectors? Pay attention to social gatherings and groupings and social conversations. Observe patterns in social interactions. Also, consider sending “test balloons” of information through the connectors you have identified and see where they land. This will allow you to test the power of connectors and their social network. The lesson here is to leverage the power of the connectors and use them for information dissemination and company wide buy-in. You don’t have to convince everyone. Convince the connectors and everyone will buy in to the idea.

Informal social networks, independent hierarchies, and social communities have rapidly grown in recent years. This is in large part due to real-time digital communication. These groups can be very powerful in their ability to deliver creative ideas, new processes, and new ways of doing things. Communities are a natural part of the organization. Rather than going against them, many organizations are succeeding by actually managing them and using their talents to accomplish goals. These companies are actually integrating and coordinating informal networks and communities with the more formal structures of the organization.