If I told you that you have in your organization a small number of employees who have greater influence than anybody else on other people, and that their influence has nothing to do with hierarchy but their natural ability to connect with many and be trusted
- Would you want to know who these people are and how to find them?
- Would you like to engage that community directly, regardless hierarchy, and ask them for help on whatever major change or transformation you are embarking upon?
If I told you that once they are engaged ( as volunteers, that is, you’ll need to ask them…) with your ‘cause’, there is a way to support this community on a well orchestrated peer-to-peer basis, (no ore teams, no more committees and task forces) and that as a result of this you could bypass months of ‘change programmes’ and ‘culture transformations’ going nowhere?
- Would you like to focus your energy on these communities?
- Would you like to know how to support that ‘designed’ peer-to-peer work?
If I told you that the key currency in serious culture shaping or transformation is behaviours, and that you need to translate into behaviours many other currencies you may have (values, leadership models, mindsets and attitudes), and that this needs to be done properly in an expert way, not on the back of an envelope, just as an editing exercise.
- Would you like to articulate that behavioural DNA that your organization needs?
- Would you like to know how to validate it and make it spreadable
If I told you that certain types of stories that float around in the organization are better than others to stimulate and accelerate change, and that a good bottom-up storytelling system (not top down) accelerates the pace of change and transformation
- Would you like to create such storytelling system?
- Would you like to make sure that you always have good stories of acceleration, not just the occasional testimonials or heroic stories?
If I told you that 75% of top-down, communications-based, hierarchically driven ‘management of change programmes’ (culture, transformation) fail
- Would you like to do something different this time?
- Would you like to know how to develop a bottom-up, grassroots, behavioural based way to create culture change and transformation?
If I told you that to do all the above you need to change your leadership style, and that there are ways to adapt the above principles that will ensure success
- Would you be for it?
- Would you consider review of the leadership needed to create large scale change in your organization?
If I told you now that all of the above can be packaged and project-sized, that it is called Viral Change™ [1], and that it has been going for years across industries; also that it is hard to fail even if one tries hard, would you like to seriously get into it?
My apologies for this infomercial.
My goal is to show you that many assumptions and ‘ways’ that ‘make sense’ are at our reach, but we are so used to the traditional ways of doing things, that some people who want change and wan tto buy services to help them to change, are a bit afraid of changing the way to change.
Well, I have just told you all these. Would you go back to a top-down, communication cascade, all layers, all hierarchy, 75% chances of failure, ‘change programme’?