By: Andrea Ughetti

The increasingly complex and competitive operating environment, as well as the impact of digitalization, require companies to make changes very fast to maintain and survive.

On the other hand, a large number of initiatives fail. Many organizations invest billions of dollars in new technology and approximately 70% do not achieve the expected results. What should we do? Why are these processes so complex? Simply because people feel uncomfortable, threatened in their roles, vulnerable, which is why the instinct is to resist change.

The point then is to focus on how we are doing it: the same as before? If so, it is highly likely that the expected objectives will not be achieved. It is proven that the best chance of success is to address the psychological aspects of change: Behavior and Culture.

To work with people, we need to know and understand them, reach out to the most skeptical employees, and identify change leaders. Social influence is key to generating behavioral change.

Leaders of change are not necessarily those who formally occupy a place. Our analysis must take another look. Not from the classic organizational diagrams, with confusing job titles, ambiguous role descriptions, double lines, etc. All this clouds our understanding, and does not allow us to reflect other informal mechanisms, the natural networks that are formed between different areas, or people, regardless of the place they occupy. Visualizing and analyzing the formal and informal relationships of an organization will allow us to find key collaborators.

Every organization has a unique network with individuals located at the core of influence, which is the ability they have to guide the behavior and opinions of others. These people are called Influencers.

It is possible to use their energy, enthusiasm, connections and ability to attract and take others with them. They need to be encouraged and supported in their role. And it is essential to convey to them how important and integral their role is for the transformation.

Los influencers they can accelerate adoption, increase participation, and improve the sustainability of the change. They will be the Change Agents, the drivers and communicators of the strategy, will bring the information to your network and generate the much-needed trust.

In Together Business Consulting We have extensive experience in transformations and early detection of networks of Change Agents in different types of organizations. We use cognitive science, applying a proven, scientific, objective and simple method, which we have already applied to many of our clients with local and regional challenges. The application of this dynamic allows us not only to find influencers but also to analyze their capabilities and connections, and classify them into different profiles, so that we can then make the most of them in our initiatives.

We can then affirm the importance of this process in any transformation, and conclude with the key aspects to take into account:

• Social influence: key to generating behavioral change.
• The influencers: They reach “significantly” more employees than senior management.
• The hidden influencers: true drivers of change and communication.

Do you know who your real ones are? Change Agents? Are you ready to find out? An interesting challenge is imposed, to win over the influencers and upload them to our trip!