Office mavericks - key to business change success?

May 9, 2011 - PRLog -- Don’t discount the office maverick – they could be an important ally in implementing major business changes successfully.

This is the contention of Dr Leandro Herrero, pioneer of the concept of Viral Change and author of the recently published Homo Imitans, who will speak on how to achieve sustainable behavioural change at the Institute of Internal Communication’s (IoIC) annual conference in Bournemouth on 13th May.

Major organisational change requires new behaviours or else it will fail. Dr Herrero comments: “In any organisation, there are people who manage to get things done and achieve positive outcomes by doing things in an unconventional or different way. These ‘deviants’ may or may not be favoured by management who usually dismiss them as mavericks. The organisation is always wasting tremendous insights by ignoring its internal deviance. Positive deviance is a great source of insight about needed behaviours.”

Dr Herrero focuses on the value of making use of the strong human tendency to copy others with whom they identify. A powerful form of ‘social infection’ is created by identifying a small group of influential, trusted individuals with strong networks within the organisation to act as advocates and activists for new behaviours.

These individuals are typically not high up within the formal hierarchy and some may have been critical or sceptical of things done by the organisation. However, Herrero explains, they often appreciate a candid request for help if the basic proposition stands up and, because of their independent-mindedness,  their agreement to participate carries real weight.

But, what if they say no? Herrero comments: “then you have a big problem. If you can’t ‘convince’ your highly connected, influential and trusted pool of natural leaders at the core of the informal conversation fabric of the organisation, why would you bother doing anything at all. If that’s the case, you have a significant problem with your strategy and vision.”

For Herrero, social infection lies at the heart of sustainable behaviour change that successfully permeates the whole organisation. Statistics suggest that around 70% of change management programmes fail. Reasons he identifies include: over-emphasis on the ability of the formal management hierarchy to influence; and on the ability of systems, processes, new technology and formal communication programmes to embed lasting change across the organisation.

He believes that the world of formal communications and the world of behaviours are separate, and that management needs to have a better understanding of this. Communications programmes should be used to support the social infection process by raising awareness and understanding, and helping to spread success stories to provide positive reinforcement.

Further information on IoIC is available at www.ioic.org.uk

Further information on Dr Herrero's books is available at www.meetingminds.com Background on viral change is available at www.viralchange.com

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The Institute of Internal Communication is the UK professional body for internal communication professionals. It offers professional development, promotes the importance of internal communications, develops industry knowledge, provides a strong network.