Do You Use The Power Of The People In Your Transformations? Bring Your 3% Onboard!
Transformations are everywhere. No matter what industry the company operates in or how many employees it has.
So, when I met with someone working for one of the largest banks in Scandinavia, the conversation was all about how the bank transformed its current product portfolio into digital products. This is not shocking, because I am certain that no matter in which bank you are these transformations happen. The difference is how these transformations are realized.
Your two approaches to transformations
There are different approaches to transformations. Let’s take the banking industry as an example.
Some banks have made it a cross-functional capability between internal processes such as People and Operations. These ‘marriages’ of core business support functions help a company to transform the way it works through simplifying processes, redesigning a new organization and driving a new culture to embrace the new organization.
Other banks have made it a more external focused capability where it looks for innovations outside – where the customers are. These are banks that often have one dedicated Innovation unit in which it collaborates with the outside and bring new ways of working back to the inside.
No matter which approach is used – from the ‘inside out’ or ‘outside in’ – people are critical.
How to use your people power when transforming from ‘inside out’
When your transformations are like an ‘inside-out’ approach, you need to engage with the RIGHT employees to drive the transformation successful. Mike Klein argues in his article Influencers: Actionable, Not Optionable that “peer credibility can be decisive in whether messages get noticed or believed”. So, receiving information about the transformation from a trusted influencer drives positive attitudes towards the transformation than receiving from an unknown or less-well-trusted source.
But who are these influencers? In Innovisor, we identify the employees who spread energy and who are sought for advice by others. Out of all these influencers, we find the fewest number of employees who can reach the largest possible share of the organization. These are your ‘key influencers’.
We call this the #ThreePercentRule – the right 3% who can reach 85% of the other employees. If you have found them, you can listen to their concerns, explain them your reasoning for the transformation, and co-creating activities with them. They will help the rest of the organization to make sense of the transformations.
Who are your employees who can help driving your transformation? The 3% key influencers!
Do you want to know how to use the people power when transforming from the ‘outside in’? I will share the how in a future post.
