How to Identify & Leverage Your Change Influencers

At Wonder Services, we understand that digital transformation is no small feat. We have seen every curveball, complexity, and challenge an organization may face as they implement new tech. Fortunately, our 65 years of combined process design experience has taught us a thing or two.

One of the things we have learned over the years is the drastic impact of a company’s change influencers. Change influencers are employees that possess the ability to change opinions, motivate others, and drive change. Like social media influencers, company change influencers motivate entire groups of people and influence behavior.

We have learned that the right influence from the proper individuals will make all the difference for a company that is embracing significant changes. Therefore, companies must identify, engage, activate, and appreciate their change leaders. In this article, we break down each of these steps and show you how we work with our clients to do just that!

Identify

Identifying change influencers is one of our first steps when we work with a new client. At Wonder Services, this process includes interviewing all individuals who will be impacted. by the change or transformation. We call this process our “stakeholder analysis.” These conversations help us find change influencers and sort them according to their potential engagement impact.

Our clients are constantly surprised by the different types of change influencers that show up in their companies. Sometimes, the most impactful change leaders are not those with official leadership titles in the company.

For example, “Convert Champions” are the highly respected head tuners in the company. These are the individuals who have typically remained quiet through previous company transformations. Having them step forward to show support would surprise and invigorate others.

Natural influencers are known simply as “influencers”. These people are known for leading change from inside companies. These individuals can quickly and easily influence others positively or negatively.

“Internal Champions” are positioned to influence the core team that is spearheading the new program or transformation. These influencers develop the core messages that will be shared and they speak on behalf of the project team.

“Strategic Advisors” can provide strategic direction. They like to be an insider and will promote what they know to others. For example, a manager whose team will be using the product would be labeled as a Strategic Advisor. The manager might not be using the product directly, but they will be assisting those who are.

The influencers that are directly using the new product or tech are known as “Super User Influencers.” They are the people directly adopting and experiencing real-time changes. These people will be the most familiar with the product and they must be on board with the changes.

Keep this in mind: All types of influencers are needed to keep a pulse on the organization and get people activated. Also, influence is always layered. The amount of influence people have will vary on how directly, or non-directly, changes impact them. 

Engage 

Identifying your change influencers is an excellent step, but it is only the beginning. 

Once you’ve found your change influencers, you must engage with them tactfully. Remember, these are the people who will be communicating the changes to their teams and other employees. 

It is also important to empower your change influencers at all levels of the organization. This means providing other necessary tools, resources, and authority to enable change influencers to drive meaningful change. 

Our Wonder Services team will also engage with change influencers by developing effective communication strategies. This looks like creating emails and campaigns for change influencers to distribute. These materials clearly define digital transformation goals and will allow change influencers to properly inform their teams about the upcoming changes. 

At Wonder Services, we also assign one person from our project team to each change influencer. Our expert team member becomes a direct guide that will keep a change influencer fully updated on the project progress and any key changes that arise. This project member can also function as a coach that will assist the change manager as they drive the change forward using talking points, team meetings, etc.

Activate

Once your change influencers are prepared and equipped with materials and resources, you are ready to activate them. Activation occurs as influencers engage in the company town halls and share the good news about the changes with their counterparts. 

Another way to activate your change leaders is by receiving their feedback. A large part of influencer engagement is hearing their questions and concerns. It is also important to discover what influencers are excited about.

Once you have a pulse on your change influencers, you can implement their feedback into your change strategies. For example, if one influencer is very excited about a particular change, you might consider filming a video of them speaking about it. Excitement and appreciation are contagious and will help teams adopt change more readily. 

Appreciate 

Change influencers are vital to the success of digital transformation and implementation. Do not forget to acknowledge the efforts of these influencers. Recognizing their work will help change influencers continually support you in future transitions and changes. 

Acknowledging change influencers may look like publicly thanking them or privately rewarding them. The strongest examples of appreciation we’ve seen at Wonder Services are also very simple. For instance, we have found that a “thank you” plaque on a person’s desk will go a long way. 

One company also interviewed their change influencers. They recorded a video spotlighting each of these individuals as a way to say thank you. This video was shown to the company when the new product went live and gave influencers a chance to be recognized for their help on the project. 

If you would like help identifying, engaging, activating, and recognizing your change influencers, do not hesitate to reach out to us. Wonder Services has an excellent team fully equipped to help you implement seamless changes in your company. We’d love to hear from you!