Viral Change by Design

It was a pleasure for Wessex branch to welcome Ingrid Facius as she spoke to our January event on Viral Change by Design.

The evening kicked off as we looked at identifying key players in the change process. These included those with:

Attitude: are they a supporter, neutral or a detractor?
Power: is their ability to get what they want done significant or relatively limited?
Interest: are they paying close attention, or are you an unwelcome distraction?
Proximity: are they closely associated with you/your work or relatively remote?
Urgency: are they prepared to go to any length to achieve their outcomes? In their eyes, how critical and time-urgent are you or what you are doing?

After a self-review exercise where we looked at putting 3 key names to the above from our own change experiences Ingrid shared with us some of the output of her 2016 research, namely, Four Constructs to Attitudinal Resistance to Change and their Antecedents:

Readiness for change
Commitment to change
Openness to change
Cynicism about organisational change

Reflecting on our earlier exercise we were then challenged to think about our key players again and identify if they were on our list because they:

Can affect the behaviours and actions of others?
Have a unique ability to get people to buy-in to change?
Are trusted and listened to by their peers?
Help others to solve problems?

Ingrid then shared a genuine client Organisational Network Analysis (ONA) maps (suitably anonymised) which showed how, by asking just a few but select questions, powerful data could be extracted from the results. This data:

Maps the hidden informal organisation that is not otherwise visible through a formal organogram
Demonstrates a real-time, real life picture of relationships across the organisation:
- Circles influences
- Connections and relationships between individuals based on who people trust, who they seek advice from, and the way in which communication flows
Highlights key individuals at the core of the network, as well as though who are less connected.

Ingrid’s questions focused in on 4 key network areas of the organisation:

Inspires Network - Which of your colleagues inspire you the most when it comes to your work?
Information Network - Who is well informed and has access to the latest updates in your work environment?
Problem Solving Network - Who do you turn to for help in thinking through a new challenging problem at work?
Values Network - Which individuals do you feel most represent and embody the values of your company?

This was very definitely a thought provoking and informative event which generated a good number of questions from the attendees as the evening ended.

A worthy addition to the CPD (Continuous Professional Development) log for sure.

To view the content of Ingrid's presentation please visit the slideshare website here.

Russel Jamieson Committee Member