Viral Change (TM)

On company rituals and those 'big events' of Homo Corporate

leandro-herrero@thechalfontproject.com (Dr Leandro Herrero) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:15:00 +0000

Seth Godin, marketing guru, relentless and restless blogger and Big Brain has written this short piece about ‘not more big (corporate) events’. Here is what he says.

No more big events
Here are things that you can now avoid:
• The annual review
• The annual sales conference
• The big product launch
• The grand opening of a new branch
• Drop dead one-shot negotiation events

The reasons? Well, they don't work. They don't work because big events leave little room for iteration, for trial and error, for earning rapport. And the biggest reason: frequent cheap communication is easier than ever, and if you use it, you'll discover that the process creates far more gains than events ever can.

He is right. And he is very wrong. Believe me, this is not something I say frequently of Seth Godin whose daily blog I read religiously as a free psychotherapy for my often restless brain. Seth is so right that those ‘things’ do not work very well. Many, many, many people, including many clients, agree (sometimes in the corridor or the cafeteria) that those ‘events’ are very inefficient to say the least.

So why do intelligent, professional, usually efficient in many ways, often mindful, possible good managers or leaders, sensible enough people keep doing them!? Rationality is not going to get us anywhere here. Those inefficient and largely not very cost-effective processes or ‘events’ are alive because they are more than processes or events... They are rituals. They serve the extra-functionality of any ritual: they create a glue, a link, a sense of belonging (even if temporary), a ‘reason d’être’, a door to get through, a point in the calendar that provides osme sort of meaning, a punctuation in time, ‘something to go to’, or to’get through’.

Corporate rituals ( and I would include numerous ‘internal events’ and ‘internal processes such as the annual strategic and business plan one) stay because they are rituals, not because they are efficient or even sensible processes/events/things we do. They could be both of course. Business-effective rituals and organisationally-effective rituals, all in one? bingo! But, very often there is a disconnect between the ‘business functionality’ (poor) and the ritual and tribal functionality (very high).

Here is the trick: rituals can’t be suppressed on the grounds of the apparent, visible, prosaic, obvious, declared business objectives pretending that we can get rid of them leaving a vacuum behind. The best that could happen is to swap an ‘ineffective’ (business) ritual with an effective one. But there will always be a trade off, not suppression as Seth wants. The annual sales conference can be suppressed (vey often for cost reasons) but will probably be substituted by ‘regional’ or ‘local’ ones, or a digital one or a series of internal meetings with lots of PowerPoint, or team building, or local diners, or something. Anything else that Seth quotes serves a ritual –purpose and before deciding their death we would be better off if we understood what exactly those rituals do for people and for the organisation.

We need to be a little bit careful with the homicide. Instead of Business Process Manual, read Anthropology... as the only way to understand ‘what’s really going on’. As a friend of mine used to say about problems - that we never solve problems, we just trade them off.- we never get rid of rituals, we substitute them. And don’t panic, if there is a vacuum or a shortage, a ‘new corporate initiative’ will be launched for the corporate tribes.

PS. I am disclosing the focus of my book planned by 2050 or so entitled ‘Homo Corporate’. Not a joke (the date is) – I own the web domain already.

It's what you say, not who you know. Or is it?

noreply@blogger.com (Nolan Beudeker) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:59:00 +0000

I find the musings of Seth Godin inspiring. In one of his recent blog posts, Viral growth trumps lots of faux followers (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/02/viral-growth-trumps-lots-of-faux-followers.html), he says that good ideas are the secret to viral growth. Imagine the power of a great idea spread by a person who is well-connected, not to faux followers but to those who believe in, care about, or admire him or her. This is the type of person that will facilitate massive behavioural tipping points required to foster change. It is therefore not only what you say, but to whom you say it.

Tokyo - City of Contrasts, and Some Thoughts around Change

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Stenbom / ASK Coaching) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:38:00 +0000

I recently visited Tokyo and became an instant fan. I have gathered input about Japan for some years, and helped prepare expats for their impending move to Tokyo, but nothing prepared me for the impact of this vast megalopolis. How to put my impressions of a whirlwind visit to Tokyo and Kyoto in a few words? “Stark contrast.” From the ear-splitting cacophony in Akihabara, the electronics shopping district, to the quiet, empty downtown streets on a weekday morning. From the Imperial Palace buildings and gardens to the ultra-modern architecture of the Roppongi district. From fleeting glimpses of geishas hurrying along the streets in the old district of Kyoto to the loud pop culture of Takeshita-dori in Tokyo.
This lead me to ask many questions, yet to be answered.
Who are the key influencers in society?
Who dares to break the mould, given the apparent conformity? Examples abound in everyday life: public “humility”, politeness. Bowing, smiling, apologizing (for anything and everything). The yellow dividing line on the floor in the subway stations, separating the flow of passengers moving in opposite directions.
How come the yellow line works here? Why not anywhere else in the world?
What constitutes a revolution in Japanese society? Overstepping the yellow line?
Is it a given that the change in society will come from the younger generation?

Around the same time as my visit, I read an article in the Financial Times, written by Brent Hoberman (a London based internet entrepreneur.) He raises the valid point that those who are living the digital transformation and revolution are under 30 years of age, whilst those that run organisations, whether in politics, media, retail, are over 40, if not 50. This was not intended as a criticism in any way, but rather as a statement of fact, pointing out the differences in communication of these two generations. The language of the internet is not the native tongue of the over 30’s! We over 30’s use it, but they live it!

So, in the communication of change, how do we translate our messages into “webspeak” to make sense to our target audiences. And is this not a strong argument for getting the “right” change champions on board? This implies a mix of generations, including those who can act as bridgers, or “bilingual” translators.

Viral Change (TM) is good leadership in action

sue.tupling@gmail.com (Sue Tupling) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 15:18:00 +0000

Continuing my series on Viral ChangeTM, I wanted to consider the role of leadership in the process of such a cultural change programme.

The Leadership Paradigm
Firstly we need to unpick our paradigms of leadership. When you hear the word – leadership –what immediately comes into your mind? What do you see, hear or feel? For most of us, if we are honest, we see person(s) in some position of authority who are directing, controlling and guiding the organisation. If we are Gen-Xers rather than baby-boomers (and I do recognise that I am guilty of generalising here) we perhaps see these people as ‘enablers’ too.

So what is leadership? It is a word that has become a generalisation or rather, a nominalisation. This means that what is actually a process word, which implies movement and doing, has been turned into a fixed form of a noun. This is a lazy way for our brains to give a label to what is actually a complex process. But in so doing, our language forms our reality and this means that we over simplify and miss the deeper meaning of ‘leadership’ or rather the process of leading.

Who’s the Leader?
How many of those lucky people designated as ‘leaders’ are now rallying for more example of leadership from the ranks? How many claim that ‘everyone is a leader’. Yet as Mike Cook says in his recent blog post; how many of them actually mean that they want to see more ‘do as I want you to-ship’.

Now, you already know that Viral ChangeTM is not linear, mechanistic, top down change but organic and spread through peer to peer networks. Of course, different challenges and contexts require different processes for leading but at its very heart leadership is done through example: being the change you want to see (to quote Gandhi). And, as Warren Bennis says “Letting the self emerge is the essential task of leaders”.

Do you notice two key words here:
• Being
And
• Letting (or allowing)

How many of us do you think truly understand, yet alone embody, the concept of leadership as ‘being’ as opposed to ‘doing’ and ‘allowing’ rather than ‘directing/controlling’?

And this is exactly why Viral ChangeTM is the process of leadership in action! And it is also why many leaders are actually VERY uncomfortable with the whole idea of Viral ChangeTM and certainly what presents itself as the main challenge for leaders undertaking a Viral ChangeTM project.

The true leaders in Viral ChangeTM are the employees ‘chosen’ to be the change catalysts. As leaders they need to be ‘allowed’ to influence change in their peer networks, to challenge the status quo and to rally action. Essentially they become the change that you want to see in your organisation.

So what do the ‘traditional’ leadership (senior management, CEO etc)have to do to ‘allow’ this to happen:

• They need to live and breathe the non-negotiable behaviours – they are examplars and it will all flounder if they don’t ‘walk the talk’
• They need to learn to feel comfortable with feeling uncomfortable
• They need to put mechanisms in place to allow the new leaders – certainly at first this means overt support mechanisms to nurture and support the change catalysts
• They need to be seen to be supporting them
• They need to proactively reap the fruits of the change that the new leaders achieve – for example have ways of solidifying and reinforcing new processes and ideas

In short, they need to let go and notice how, in such letting go, how change is allowed to happen!

Further reading

1. HBR, How Gen X Leads

MANAGING CHANGE ACROSS CULTURES

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Spargo) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:45:00 +0000

Dr Herrero has been invited to attend and provide a keynote speech at Worldwork's MANAGING CHANGE ACROSS CULTURES INTERNATIONAL CONSULTANTS’ WORKSHOP at the The Moller Centre, Churchill College, University of Cambridge, Storey’s Way, Cambridge CB3 ODE Cambridge, UK, 15th-16th January 2010.

Research shows that the success rate of change initiatives, even in mono-cultural environments, is very low. Global organisations often look for support from consultants and facilitators to guide them in the even more complex task of managing change in a cross-cultural context.How can we help ensure that changes such as the global roll out of processes or the worldwide diffusion of innovation can occur with a higher degree of success?This workshop is aimed at internationally oriented consultants, trainers, MBA faculty and facilitators who want to offer effective tools and approaches for their clients in the area change management. The focus will be on managing change in a Western/Chinese context but the process is designed to build awareness and skills in managing the factors in any cross-border change process.The two-day workshop will bring together a unique blend of talents and tools for participants to explore, at first hand, cutting-edge approaches, role-plays, mini-cases and computer based simulations by the authors themselves.The workshop will include:Experiencing a full session of the LingHe computer simulation and learning how to optimise it’s use in a variety of developmental contexts connected to managing change across culturesExperimenting with role-plays designed to explore the behavioural factors necessary to build trust and influence key change agents at a local levelHow to use mini-case studies to stimulate understanding of alternative strategies in dealing with the challenges of introducing change across cultures.An overview of the Viral ChangeTM approach developed by the book’s author and change guru Leandro Herrero. Clear links will be made between Leandro’s approach and the change algorithms used in LingHe.This workshop launches the distribution of LingHe within the WorldWork network for which we have negotiated special rates for it’s use by all participants attending.David Trickey, WorldWork’s New Product Development Director is at present working on a large scale cultural change process with Leandro Herrero, and both David and Nigel have delivered workshops with Prof. Albert Angehrn for organisations such as IKEA, Fiat, IVECO and The Scottish Government.If you would like to book a place or have further information please write to eric.wang@worldwork.biz

Another Power Law for the collection

leandro-herrero@thechalfontproject.com (Dr Leandro Herrero) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:41:00 +0000

It’s Not Easy Being Popular. 77 Percent Of Facebook Fan Pages Have Under 1,000 Fans
Here it is, what's new? Power Law dominates the world of connectivity ( see other entries, I am colecting examples.....)

Dr Leandro Herrero to speak at Imaginatik's Global Forum, February 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Spargo) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:43:00 +0000

Dr Leandro Herrero has been invited to provide a keynote speech at Imaginatik's Global Forum in London in 2010.

Entitled "Innovactions Cultures. Viral Innovation and Organisational Transformation: Talk Less, Do More".

Further information will be made available soon.

Dr Leandro Herrero to provide Keynote Speech at Eyeforpharma's 8th Annual SFE Conference in Barcelona, April 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Spargo) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:33:00 +0000

Dr Leandro Herrero has once again been invited to provide a keynote speech at eyeforpharma's annual SFE Conference at Hotel Rey Juan Carlos, Barcelona, Spain on 27-29th April 2010. Specifically tailored for the Pharmaceutical Industry, Dr Herrero will provide his presentation entitled: "Viral ChangeTM Inside as overriding core competence: Why speed of business transformation in the era of permanent instability is not negotiable."

If you would like to attend this event, or for further information please go to the following link to view the full brochure http://www.eyeforpharma.com/sales/the-brochure.php

Innovation is a perfect focus for Viral Change- Innovation behaviours Lesson 1

leandro-herrero@thechalfontproject.com (Dr Leandro Herrero) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:05:00 +0000

Innovation is a perfect focus for Viral ChangeTM. Defining a relatively small set of ‘innovation behaviours’ that can be copied and spread via a champions community is the fastest way to create a true culture of innovation.

Example: imagine 1000 people systematically asking the question ‘Can it (could it) be done differently? Faster? Cheaper? Better?’ at the end of meetings, at the creation of business plans, at the post-mortem review of projects... Systematically, virally embedded, tipping points created = ‘it is the norm’. A true internal epidemic of curiosity and inquiry. That is an innovation culture.

To look at Google (which I like big time anyway) or 3M as a ‘model of innovation culture’ is plain distraction, very well spread by people who don’t have much to say about innovation...

[Ages ago in my previous life I attended several Business School Executive courses. It was customary at that time to show videos of Saint Jack Welch, then CEO of GE, and hundreds of slides about how clever ABB was . I promised that if I found myself in another forum where Jack Welch was mentioned I would walk out. So I did several times. It seemed to me that the invocation to the Saint was ALL people had to say about managing things properly (and I had lots of question marks on this by the way). Today, many years later, I am about to make the same promise to myself of walking out of innovation conferences/meetings/presentations where 3M-cum-post-Its is brought in. I could be more tolerant with Google since there is a lot to learn and the presenter may, after all, surprise me but please, please, could presenters/speakers/so-called-gurus get at least a bit deeper in the famous example of the 15% or 20% time that those employees enjoy, to ‘their own projects’?? Most people still think that this is ‘the answer to innovation’, without realising how ‘strict’ this rule is to companies that use it... OK, digression as usual, I am coming back.]

A typical ‘lesson 1’ I use in workshops/preparations/uncovering non negotiable behaviours work in the innovation/viral change area is the discussion around the saying ‘When the only thing you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail’. Seth’s blog post expands it in an interesting angle looking at publishing. As usual, it is difficult to put it better than Seth.
Seth's Blog: Hammer time

PS. My new book ‘Innovactions: escaping the me-too company’ – where I address innovation from the behavioural+viral side - wont be ready until February, sorry!

Almost hilarious comments to the article' Let’s Kill “Viral”: It’s Time For a New Word

leandro-herrero@thechalfontproject.com (Dr Leandro Herrero) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:21:00 +0000

Tech Crunch has published an article entitled: Lets kill viral, it is time for a new word

Written by guest post author Adam L. Penenberg, who is the author of the book Viral Loop. Mr Penenbergs complains that his publisher wants to change the title to ‘Share’ because they are worried about the negative connotations of Viral in the context of H1N1 flue or swine flu as we call it ‘over here’.

Probably with good intentions, if naïve, he declares that it is time to kill ‘Viral’ and asks the audience/readership for alternative terms. The comments, long list, are mostly hilarious. Only one or two out of dozens and dozens take him seriously. Most think it is a stupid idea. One comment insinuates how cynical it is to try to kill viral and start a sort of viral campaign to look for an alternative name!

Most of the comments are of the sort ‘mock, tease, ridicule or scoff’ which is what Wikipedia tells me I should write down in politically correct style instead of what I wanted to write down. Here is a very short list of alternatives: fungal, orgasmeme, tidal, spamsplosive, avalanche, H1M1, social loops, wildfire marketing, contagious, sticky, parasitic, or herpetic. And this is a small sample.

I have left a humble comment (un-moderated yet) feeling sorry for him and for the publishers decision which I said it has the solidity of a cream cake. Hey, there is nothing better than ‘viral’ and we at Viral Change (TM) practitioners feel very strongly about or brand! Mmmmm, I think we will stick to Viral .... for a few years. The fact that ‘everybody is using viral’, far from a problem, is... good! But there is only one Viral Change (TM)

A long and winding road to successful change? I think not.

noreply@blogger.com (Nolan Beudeker) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:31:00 +0000

Mahatma Gandhi:

"Your beliefs become your thoughts
Your thoughts become your words
Your words become your actions
Your actions become your habits
Your habits become your values
Your values become your destiny."

Let me begin by saying I am no behavioural expert; I am also considerably better at asking questions than providing answers. This said, based on a quick Google search on the subject, it apparently takes an individual 21- to 30-days to successfully entrench a new habit. It all depends on whether the underlying belief can be successfully changed, as illustrated by the words of Gandhi above. My question is this: how long will it take one Change Champion to successfully influence people, and thereby sustainably entrench change in an organisation?

In theory, if one Champion influences 7/10 connections, and those seven influence 3/5, and those three influence 1/3, then "the total impact is 50 well connected-and-infected people" in a mere 63-days (21+21+21)! And if those 50 have the power to infect 2500 people in 21-days - that's 84-days to successful change for 2500 people! Okay, perhaps a bit of a stretch. However, it is definitely feasible that this many people can successfully change their behaviour in six-months.

Are we being served?

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Morrice) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:47:00 +0000

We recently had an accident with our car. It wasn't our fault and the other (somewhat tearful) person accepted liability. It all seemed very straightforward... Until the other driver put in her claim form to her insurers blaming us! Since then we have had tens of phonecalls and emails. To her, her insurers, our insurers, our insurance brokers, the repair garage etc. Two weeks after the accident there is no end in sight.
So why am I telling you this sad and often (I am told) repeated saga?
The communication between all the interested parties has been diabolical. I have received three letters from the insurers and two phone calls. All from different people, in different departments with totally contradictory messages. The insurance broker doesn't fill me with confidence when she says 'don't worry they always do that they are just keeping their options open.' I am particularly annoyed as the broker is supposed to deal with the insurer on my behalf and isn't doing!
It's time for a change. In this situation (fortunately for us no-one was injured) someone needs to take control and handle the transactions. If it has to be me, the customer, then so be it. But let me know and I'll stop paying the broker's commission.
We need to move into a world where teams co-operate across disciplines and companies and where there is a sense of responsibility and care. Top down hierarchical companies are doomed to failure. They do not motivate and energise the people within them and they foster labyrinthine reporting structures.

Another Power Law: Twitter this time

leandro-herrero@thechalfontproject.com (Dr Leandro Herrero) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:28:00 +0000

Another Power Law for 'the collection' mentioned in a previous post. This is not surprising but, again, both remembering this pattern for anything to do with connectivity. Impossible to ignore when referring to organisations. 'The Power Law inside' is obvious and so relevant to Viral Change (TM). But this is the summary of the study:

"Specifically, the top 10% of prolific Twitter users accounted for over 90% of tweets. On a typical online social network, the top 10% of users account for 30% of all production. To put Twitter in perspective, consider an unlikely analogue - Wikipedia. There, the top 15% of the most prolific editors account for 90% of Wikipedia's edits ii. In other words, the pattern of contributions on Twitter is more concentrated among the few top users than is the case on Wikipedia, even though Wikipedia is clearly not a communications tool."

The Power Law of Viral Change (TM) is also the Power Law of 'Facebook distance' and 'email distance'. Wonderful data!

leandro-herrero@thechalfontproject.com (Dr Leandro Herrero) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:02:00 +0000

One of the key components of the Viral Change™ maths is the Power Law that governs most of the connectedness phenomena seeing in organisations, external social networks, electronic networks, the long tail economy, the web etc. As stated in the Viral Change™ book that means that a small group of individuals within the organisation are going to be relatively well connected whilst the majority (long tail) are not. For social influence, ditto.

Head and tail are powerful economic models as well. Amazon is a head and tail economy. It sells thousands of copies of Harry Potter as well as 4 copies of Pottery in Cumbria (bought by the girlfriend of the author, the author himself and two relatives). It makes money in both. My local village bookshop is definitely a head economy in the shelves: only Harries and the like can be afforded space (although his computer can access the long tail in the distributor). Obama campaign as mainly tail economy: millions of $10 donations vs the head economy of few $100 million. He was also viral:’ a family at a time, a person at a time’. Power laws explain blog life: a few well connected and reads, most poorly connected and read by few. Our change champions model entails the use of the ‘few well connected’ to spread new behaviours through their (powerful) social networks, creating critical masses of ‘new routines’.

Whilst anybody with a background in maths/physics/computer sciences etc would see the Power Law/logarithmic distribution as obvious as breakfast cereals, many people are hooked into the Bell curve/normal distribution as the one should be expected to find ‘everywhere’ (well publicised by the distribution of IQ (intelligence) where by design ‘100’ is the norm.

Due to the importance of understanding the Power Law of connectivity and influence, I am always collecting ‘powerful’ examples of power law distributions that may come in front of our noses as a way to illustrate: you see, influence/connectivity works the same way. This is why I was delighted to find in my scrolling ‘Google Fast Flip’ two wonderful examples

Summary: Experimenters studied data from 100,000 participants that were both Facebook users and email users. They found that most Facebook users' friends are within several miles of their location. They also found that emailing followed the same pattern: 41% of the emails that participants sent were within their own city.

('Most people use the web to talk to people nearby' Fast Company, 26 October 2009) )

Wonderful!

Simultaneous translators virally infected

leandro-herrero@thechalfontproject.com (Dr Leandro Herrero) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:49:00 +0000

Just back for a three days Change Champions Conference with a client in Italy. All work in Italian. Great simultaneous translation. At the end of the last workshop the translators approached me: we are infected, we will spread the word; we feel we know it ‘all’.

What a wonderful feeling of ‘infecting’ people who are not close to the real day to day work of change!

Viral change is viral. Not a discovery I know, but worth noticing!

Homo Imitans

leandro-herrero@thechalfontproject.com (Dr Leandro Herrero) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:58:00 +0000

This is an interesting piece that refers amongst other things to the study on obesity as a form of social copying. I use this data all the time in my Viral Change presentations to highlight the real social switch of the century: Homo Sapiens to Homo Imitans

Book Review - 'Connected,' by Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler - Review - NYTimes.com

IDEAS ROMPEDORAS: LAS REGLAS DEL CAMBIO VIRAL PARA TRANSFORMAR OR GANIZACIONES: en su libreria Casa del Libro

leandro-herrero@thechalfontproject.com (Dr Leandro Herrero) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:25:00 +0000

'Disruptive Ideas' in Spanish is here

IDEAS ROMPEDORAS: LAS REGLAS DEL CAMBIO VIRAL PARA TRANSFORMAR OR GANIZACIONES: en su libreria Casa del Libro

Key Viral Change(TM) Principles - another summary!

leandro-herrero@thechalfontproject.com (Dr Leandro Herrero) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:21:00 +0000

1. There is no change unless it is behavioural

2. Change behaviours; get culture; not the other way around

3. Behaviours sustain processes, not the other way around

4. A small set of behaviours has the ‘non-linear’ power to create high impact

5. A relatively small number of individuals within any organisation have great power in the creation of change. This power is related to various factors such as high connectivity with others, high trust, or moral, non-hierarchical authority

6. Behaviours endorsed and spread by that small group of individuals within an organisation (‘champions’) create ‘social tipping points’ where those new behaviours become established as a norm. ‘Critical masses’ of individuals adopting those new behaviours are created via imitation and social copying in similar ways as trends or fashions are created in the macro-social arena

7. The role of the formal hierarchy, management and leadership, is to support those small groups of highly influential employees who ‘infect’ the organisation with the changes they have endorsed. It is therefore a role largely back-staged or ‘invisible’

8. Peer to peer viral change works better when is spread informally (but orchestrated; we call it a process of ‘designed informality’). Viral Change must not be a formally labelled ‘Change Management Programme’

9. Viral change is neither top-down nor strictly speaking bottom-up, but multi-centric and distributed across the organisation.

10. Stories are the best currency of change. Story-capturing and story-telling is key to viral change.

11. Viral Change distinguishes itself from simple ‘viral communications’ since it goes beyond ‘information cascades’ to engage people in mutual commitment to action. In other words, endorsement of the need for change and its communication (‘activism’) is necessary but not sufficient for Viral Change™. Mutual commitment and action (‘activism’) is required.

12. Viral change as a methodology consists on the tailored combination of activities or interventions around the previous principles which create faster and more sustainable change. In a nutshell it entails (a) the uncovering and articulation of a small set of (‘non negotiable’) behaviours to sustain the change goals, (b) the identification of and reaching out to a small number of well connected and influencing employees, (c) the ongoing coaching and support to that community of champions and (d) the capturing of changes and tracking of progress via stories and other means

13. The leaders of the process (internal project team and external Viral Change consultants in whatever combination) work directly with (a) the leadership of the organisation, (b) the community of champions, (c) the supporting functions such as HR or OD or IT

14. In the digital era, Viral Change is greatly supported by a dedicated IT infrastructure such as the ones provided by the Web 2.0/Enterprise 2.0, for example, internal social networking, collaborative software, IM/blogging/real time input (twitter). The existence of these digital platforms in organisations is a bonus but not a condition sine qua non for Viral Change to work

15. Viral Change™ has been pioneered by The Chalfont Project as a way to create fast and sustainable change in organizations whether business, public or private sectors. Its principles also apply to the macro-social arena

New Viral Change short summary

leandro-herrero@thechalfontproject.com (Dr Leandro Herrero) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:11:00 +0000

Many people has asked for a short(er) text to summarise the Viral Change philosophy. Here is one:

Viral Change™

Decades of mechanistic ‘change management programmes’ in organisations, based upon the sequential following of ‘step’s and ‘initiatives’ have not accrued much success. The rate of failures or ‘below expectations’ results is high across industries. There are many reasons that explain this but the conventional assumption that it is mainly due to lack of strategy doesn’t hold water. Besides the standard logic of the need for leadership, three factors are key for the success of change in organisations

One is that change is behavioural based. There is effectively no change unless it is a change in behaviours. Process and system change, or structural change, are usually the easy part. The key is to ensure that people, from top to bottom, do things in a different way.

The second factor is the choice of influence mechanisms. Whilst top management hold the hierarchical power, this does nor necessarily correlates with degree of influence in making changes for the ‘new ways of doing’. Peer to peer influence is far more powerful and sustainable.

The third factor is conceptual. The real organisation is not the ‘plumbing system’ represented by the organisation chart but a series of overlapping collaborative spaces, networks of individual and group connections, some of them visible, most of them invisible to the management activity. In this network of connections, a relatively small number of individuals hold a disproportionate high number of connections, and therefore influence potential, whilst the majority of individuals have few connections.

However, many traditional change management processes are neither behavioural based nor using peer to peer influence enough, if at all. They also are biased towards the top-down hierarchical organisation where the only clusters of connections that count are the visible ‘collaboration by design’ of teams and committees. The flattening of the organisation or the abandoning of the command and control language is not guarantee of true shift in the mental model.

Viral Change™ is the only alternative to the traditional, mechanistic, process driven, top down change management. It delivers sustainable change faster; it is a far less painful process and is by far more cost-effective.

In the traditional models of ‘change management’, a set of initiatives (usually many of them) are cascaded down form the top of the organisation and communicated to all employees via massive communication programmes. All layers of management are involved and the higher ranks ‘communicate’ and ‘present’ to lower ones in an orchestrated communication cascade. Workshops take place, actions are decided and implementations are expected following what amounts to an often colossal effort of rational appeal: ‘B is better that A, we should go B, this is how’. It all makes sense in the context of an organisation understood, consciously or unconsciously, as a top-down designed system with visible ‘communication pipes’ and ‘recipients’ of the information. Unfortunately, change that has this model embedded doesn’t work well at all.

In Viral Change™, a small set of behaviours is spread by a relatively small number of individuals (those with higher connectivity) via their own networks of influence in the same way as a virus spread or ideas are adopted in the form of fashions or new social norms. Those non-negotiable behaviours are ‘uncovered’ case by case as the ones which will be needed to support the desired changes: cultural change, effectiveness goals, redesign of working processes etc. In Viral Change™ mode, that small percentage of influencing individuals is the true engine of change. They do not correlate with positions of management and usually you find them across all layers and ‘job descriptions’ within the organisation.

Whilst the spread of factual information (‘These are the 5 goals of the strategic plan’) sits well in formal communication channels, the spread of behaviours doesn’t happen via stacks of Powerpoints. Behaviours are imitated, consciously or unconsciously. Once the initial spread and imitation has taken place via the small community of people with high degree of connectivity and influence, other people follow and adopt, suddenly creating organisational tipping points when ‘the new way becomes the norm’. Social fashions follow the same mechanism – there is no top level command an control that dictates them. In Viral Change™, the terminology of ‘let’s make a,b,c within the company fashionable’ is used normally. Viral Change™ is truly about creating ‘an internal epidemic of X’, ‘a (social) infection’.

An additional factor that contributes to the highly effective and successful Viral Change™ is the use of stories. Stories travel extraordinarily well within the organisation, carrying ‘behavioural models’ in them. Stories are the real currency of Viral Change™.

The viral spread of new behaviours that create the new ways of working, a new culture or a radical improvement in productivity, for example, is magnified if the process is relatively silent. Viral Change™ is not another form of programme but a system of engineered informality where the focus of attention and energy is on the peer-to-peer spread and infection.

Viral Change™ inevitably challenges traditional assumptions such as the role of management and leadership, which for Viral Change™ to work requires a greater form of ‘back-stage’ in the form of support and facilitation of the work of the ‘highly connected’. These individuals are usually called ‘change champions’ – however the existence of the ‘change champions’ terminology in a given organisation doesn’t make it per se a Viral Change™ way of life.

Viral Change™ has been pioneered by The Chalfont Project, an organisational consulting group led by Dr Leandro Herrero, author of the book of the same title, now in its second edition[1] .Additional insights can be found in www.viralchange.net and www.thechalfontproject.com

Contact +44 1494 73099 or ukoffice@thechalfontpeoject.com
[1]

Innovactions changes behaviours into continuing innovation

leandro-herrero@thechalfontproject.com (Dr Leandro Herrero) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:01:00 +0000

London – July21, 2009 - Innovation is back on the radar in many organizations, driven in part by recent movements such as ‘crowdsourcing’, open innovation and the wikinomic world. Interesting is that a lot of airtime is given to ‘processes for innovation’, which are focused on generating and capturing so-called ‘innovative ideas’.

In Innovactions, Leandro Herrero explains that capturing those ideas will only take your organization so far. “Processes and skills are indeed valuable,” he admits, “but creating an environment that is wide open to inquiry, curiosity and perpetual re-invention will ensure that innovation is no longer a word in your organization, but a behaviour. And not just any behaviour, but one that will lead your company to flourish.”

In this new book, the author focuses on analyzing the components that are needed to create a culture of innovation, with a heavy emphasis on what people do (or don’t do) to achieve (or miss) a goal. These innovative behaviours the author describes as ‘disruptive’, following the thread in his previous book Disruptive Ideas.

Debunking the myth that the capacity to innovate is allegedly connected to the size of the organization or the type of industry, Innovactions will appeal to any manager and leader interested in creating the socio-environmental conditions for innovation within their company. The simple management tools provided by the book will help them create a culture in which different forms and degrees of innovation can co-exist and flourish.

Leandro Herrero was a practicing psychiatrist for many years before holding senior leadership positions in top league business organizations. He is currently CEO of The Chalfont Project Ltd, an international group of organizational consultants, which he co-founded. His previous books include The Leader with Seven Faces, Viral Change, New Leaders Wanted – Now Hiring! and Disruptive Ideas, also published by meetingminds.

Innovactions - Escape from the me-too company
meetingminds, October 2009
£20.00/US $29.00 - Paperback, 200 pages
ISBN: 978-1-905776-06-1
Available to pre-order at: www.waterstones.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.com, www.meetingminds.com and many other (online) bookshops and outlets.

The Viral Change Partnership - A call to join a start up – could you help us to find the right people?

leandro-herrero@thechalfontproject.com (Dr Leandro Herrero) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:36:00 +0000

The Chalfont Project carves out Viral Change™ creating a separate dedicated LLP company. The timetable for the start up has started

Having pioneered Viral Change™ and created substantial market presence and implementation experience (www.viralchange.net) we have taken the decision within The Chalfont Project (www.thechalfontproject.com ) to create a new company exclusively dedicated to the expansion of Viral Change™ across industries and geographies.

The new company will be de facto a start up in the form of an LLP (Limited Liability Partnership) The majority partner will be The Chalfont Project but we are looking for a very small number of exceptional start up partners who can see this unique opportunity and are willing to take over our Viral Change™ IP assets, develop them, create business and share risk and profits with the rest of the partners.

Partners will be full time dedicated to The Viral Change Partnership LLP and will be directly responsible for its revenue growth, owning part of the new company in terms agreed in accordance with their contributions. If you know of anybody who is an exceptional professional with sufficient experience and gravitas to become a partner, please forward this email and ask him/her to get in touch with me at leandro-herrero@thechalfontproject.com so that I can share a more detailed information blueprint.

In parallel to this search for exceptional partners, The Viral Change Partnership will be setting up a selected number of associations with individuals or organisations which could not fit the exclusive time commitment but who however wish to establish a close and formal relationship with us. Please feel free to share this call as well with who may be interested

From Penny Power, founder of ecademy

leandro-herrero@thechalfontproject.com (Dr Leandro Herrero) — Wed, 27 May 2009 07:16:00 +0000

Penny Power [ 25-May-09 8:47pm ] On 22nd May 2009 I shared the stage with Dr Herrero, I followed his talk. It was the most inspiring talk I have heard. his understanding of the new world and the need for mass behavioral change was articulated at a level that moved minds in the room. The time is now for Dr.Herrero, he is the perfect messenger for the people who fully understand what is actually happening in the Social Networking world. I feel honored to know him and hope that one day he will speak for us at our London Event.

Organisational Change: New Approaches and Role of CEOs

leandro-herrero@thechalfontproject.com (Dr Leandro Herrero) — Sun, 24 May 2009 11:28:00 +0000

An old review of Viral Change now found! The book is reviewed together with Lynda Grayton's Hot Spots in the context of MBA materials
Organisational Change: New Approaches and Role of CEOs

From my presentation at CIB

leandro-herrero@thechalfontproject.com (Dr Leandro Herrero) — Sat, 23 May 2009 09:10:00 +0000

Wonderful people at the CIB conference, a professional body of internal (external) communicators

Dr Leandro Herrero says viral change is infectious

CIPR Inside event an evening with Viral Change author Leandro Herrero

leandro-herrero@thechalfontproject.com (Dr Leandro Herrero) — Sat, 23 May 2009 08:45:00 +0000

Se Lee's Smith call to this meeting
Deliggted to be back to CIPR
Leandro
Talking Internal Communication...: Free CIPR Inside event an evening with Viral Change author Leandro Herrero