Informal leaders are invaluable assets for every change initiative! Here are 3 ways to identify them.
Whenever we talk about reducing the resistance to change, engaging the organization and making it a smooth ride, we often hear the advice of engaging the top leadership and having them actively involved.
Then, we often hear that we should also identify and engage the so-called informal leaders.
People in the organization who are somehow influential but do not have any formal managerial power.
To get their buy-in and active involvement in the change initiative can be super beneficial.
In some cases, you might already know who those influential leaders are, but in other, more complex environments, you sometimes might ask yourself, ”How can I identify those people?”.
Here are three things you can do to start identifying those informal leaders in your teams.
Number 1:
Create opportunities for people to learn about what your plans are and what the upcoming changes might look like.
Do things like brown bag sessions over lunch, where people can voluntarily turn up.
Then observe who regularly turns up to these events, shows some interest and has some positive contributions, some positive attitude towards the developments.
Those are your first and very good candidates to consider for being part of the change team.
Number 2:
Perform an Organizational Network Analysis or ONA.
ONA is based on a questionnaire that you send out to your organization and just ask people questions like:
Who do you reach out to if you have a question about our strategy?
Who do you reach out to if you have a problem at work?
Who do you reach out to if you have a personal problem or a challenge in your career?
You will typically be surprised to see how the network in your organization looks like and who is connected to who and who are considered the wise people.
And yes, people on top of the list are definitely good candidates for being part of your change team because they are very influential.
Number 3:
Get them to become active and try to become part of your change team.
Create an official application process. Talk about the change that’s coming. Say that you want people to become part of the change management team. Then, see who applies and let them convince you that they should be part of it.
People who really put in some effort to become part of the team are definitely good candidates.
