Works
- The Network Secrets of Great Change Agents, Harvard Business Review, 2013
In Tactics of Organizational Politics
Ideas
Networks of successful change agents. This Harvard Business Review article reports a study of 68 change initiatives in the UK National Health Service. Change agents who were central in the informal network did better whatever their formal rank; agents who bridged otherwise disconnected people did better with large changes; and close ties to fence-sitters always helped, because the ambivalent were reluctant to disappoint a friend, while close ties to resisters helped with small changes and hindered large ones.
What it explains
Battilana and Casciaro explain why a change agent's informal relationships predict success better than rank, and why time spent with the undecided pays off. The structure of the agent's network should match the size of the change.