Change framework : INFLUENCER: The New Science of Leading Change

The influencer change framework developed by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler in the book INFLUENCER: The New Science of Leading Change, which explores the power of influence in facilitating organizational change.

Highlight:

• What does it mean to be an influencer?
• Three keys to influence
• 6 sources of influence

To learn more, I suggest reading the book INFLUENCER: The New Science of Leading Change or the article The Influencer Change Framework–The Power to Change Anything, which summarizes the book.

Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change By Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler

What does it mean to be an influencer?

These days, when we hear the word influencer, some might think of social media stardom. But being an influencer is bigger than getting “likes” — it is about someone’s ability to lead and influence others to change their behaviors, hearts, and minds to produce meaningful, sustainable results. As a project manager, you will be asked to lead efforts that require this level of change, and applying this model can lead to a big impact.

To influence is different than to persuade. Persuasion is short-term, while influence is lasting. In order to have real influence, you need others to trust you, consider you an authority, and have confidence in your decisions. As a project manager in Agile projects, you may use influence to facilitate organizational change or to get a team to try a new tool, process, or technology. When facilitating organizational change, influence is the difference between temporary changes in behavior and deep change in culture and values.

Three keys to influence

The three keys to influence, as researched by the authors of this model, are to clarify measurable results, find vital behaviors, and use the six sources of influence. Let’s break each of these down.

1) Clarify measurable results
You can’t influence others to change until you know what you want, why you want it, and when you want it. You may recall that effective results are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (S.M.A.R.T). When setting goals for a project, remember to ask yourself what the “why” entails. Are the results specific and measurable? Is it what you intended? Is it time-bound? Also, make sure the measures are visible and transparent to the entire team throughout the change.

2) Find vital behaviors
A vital behavior is an action an individual takes at a pivotal moment in the context of the change they are seeking. For example, if a member of the Development Team is seeking to increase the involvement of the Product Owner throughout the development process, they might exhibit a vital behavior when they have just finished mocking up a new feature. Instead of just continuing on to the next item on their to-do list, they might send an email to the Product Owner to review their work and provide feedback. By choosing to include or exclude their Product Owner at a pivotal moment, the developer is taking a small action to enact the change they want to create.

Real change happens when you can change the behaviors of others. Whether you are changing the minds of your team, stakeholders, or customers, it is important to track their current behavior patterns and understand the behaviors you need them to adopt in order to make the change you are seeking.

To determine vital behaviors, you might consult experts, scan the best and most-cited articles and research, or perform a culture assessment by identifying norms and customs within the team. When identifying the behaviors, evaluate which behaviors are constructive to the change you wish to promote and notice examples of those who succeed where most others fail.

3) Use the six sources of influence
The authors of INFLUENCER: The New Science of Leading Change studied companies and individuals who were successful or unsuccessful with implementing change, and they identified six sources or factors that were correlated with successful change. When determining how to influence your target audience to create change, you should consider using all of these sources to increase your chances of success. You may even consider prioritizing these based on your knowledge of your audience. For example, some target audiences may be most swayed by financial incentives, while others may be more incentivized by social justice impacts.

Here are the six sources uncovered by the authors in their research, including a sample idea of how you can use these examples in your work in tandem with our Product Owner involvement scenario (described earlier):

1. Personal motivation: Are the individuals motivated internally to engage in the new behavior? Can you help them “love what they hate”?
   Example: Ensure the Product Owner is timely, appreciative, and effective while giving their feedback.
2. Personal ability: Are the individuals capable of performing the behavior? Do they have the ability, knowledge, and skills to “do what they can’t”?
   Example: Ensure that the developer knows how to use the available demo tools and can easily send a quick video of the new feature in their email to the Product Owner.
3. Social motivation: Are there social contacts or networks encouraging or discouraging this new behavior?
   Example: Have the Development Team members remind each other in the Daily Scrum to email the Product Owner before they finalize the work.
4. Social ability: Does the team have resources within their social network to help them carry out the new behaviors?
   Example: Give the Development Team a tool to track all of their demos to the Product Owner during the Sprint.
5. Structural motivation: Are there rewards or incentives that they will receive if they perform the new behaviors?
   Example: Provide a coffee gift card Sprint award that the Product Owner gets to award after each Sprint.
6. Structural ability: Are there environmental factors at play that either deter or support the new behavior? Can you make the incorrect behavior harder to do than the correct behavior?
   Example: Add a rule to the content management system that pre-populates the name of the Product Owner in the reviewer list.

Resources:
Agile Project Management by Google
The book INFLUENCER: The New Science of Leading Change