Difference in conduit of change

That brings me to item 7 on my list: the difference between traditional change management and Viral Change concerning the conduit of change, i.e. how change flows through the organisation.

Following the conventional approach, the primary vehicle for the change is the management tree/structure represented in the organisation chart. VPs fire the shots and take care of directors so they are on board. Directors repeat this at their level, involving managers and their groups, sections or divisions. Managers take care of their own trees. Change is created by a sequential cascade down, via ‘the plumbing system’ of ‘burning platform signals’, communications and activities, training and review processes. Buy-in is assumed as part of the rational process. All people are equal under the tsunami!

However, in Viral Change, networks of people are the primary conduit. Signals (language, strategy, ‘burning platforms’ and directions of change) may have been started at the top, and indeed communicated down via hierarchical ‘pipes’, but change is created by social imitation in networks of influence and driven by few individuals who act as key nodes. They constitute either an informal, natural network, or they may be aided by a designed network of ‘change agents’ or ‘Change Champions’. Viral Change does not subscribe to an egalitarian view: there is no point in communicating to all and cascading down as the only mechanism to spreading change.

If you want to read more about Viral Change, you can read it all in my book of the same title: Viral Change: the alternative to slow, painful and unsuccessful management of change in organisations

Formal process of ‘the change management programme’

In this item – item 6 on my list – we take a look at how Viral Change differs in its process, its approach on the change management programme.

The conventional approach's formal process is consistent with the assumed and lived model of the organisation. It stresses sequence: create a ‘burning platform first, communicate strategy, plan, distribute tasks, train, roll-out, check. It relies on processes above behaviours.

Viral Change approaches the formal process of change with the understanding of the organisation as a living, adaptable network. It stresses multi-directional influence and creation of stable change by the combination of four elements:

(1) language
(2) behaviours and their reinforcement
(3) creation of tipping points (with emphasis on ‘social imitation’)
(4) establishment of new routines or ‘cultures (see later).

In Viral Change mode, the emphasis is on behaviours above processes.

If you want to read more about Viral Change, you can read it all in my book of the same title: Viral Change: the alternative to slow, painful and unsuccessful management of change in organisations

Cause-effect and Interventions

In this fifth instalment, we take a look at how Viral Change differs from the traditional change management in its view on cause-effect and interventions in the organisation.

The conventional approach is linear dynamics territory: big problems require big changes and a proportionate change management programme. Change progresses in a steady, measurable way (milestones and calendars). The programme has a distinct Tsunami effect and the bigger the tsunami the better. ‘We have to catch all at the same time with the same intensity’

Viral Change, however, has a clear non-linear dynamics view: big changes may require a small set of key and meaningful actions or (new) behaviours. The programme resembles the butterfly management effect: small initial change in key areas suddenly appears widespread, possibly ‘revolutionary’ (phase transition and tipping points).

If you want to read more about Viral Change, you can read it all in my book of the same title: Viral Change: the alternative to slow, painful and unsuccessful management of change in organisations.

Disruptive Ideas achieve bigger results

Disruptive Ideas – the forthcoming new book by Leandro Herrero – shows organisations that all you need is a small set of disruptive ideas or powerful rules to create big impact.

In a time when organisations simultaneously run multiple corporate initiatives and large change programmes, Disruptive Ideas tells us that - contrary to the collective mindset that says that big problems need big solutions – all you need is a small set of powerful rules to create big cultural change.

In his previous book, Viral Change™, Leandro Herrero described how a small set of behaviours, spread by a small number of people could create sustainable change. In Disruptive Ideas, the follow-up book to Viral Change™, the author suggests a menu of 10 ‘structures’, 10 ‘processes’ and 10 ‘behaviours’ that have the power to transform any organisation of any size.

These 30 disruptive ideas can be implemented at any time and at almost no cost and what’s more...you don’t even need them all. But their compound effect – the 10+10+10 maths - will be more powerful than vast corporate programmes with dozens of objectives and efficiency targets.

This book will appeal to people at different levels of management or leadership, who want to reshape their culture by enhancing working practices and in general aim at greater organisational effectiveness. Its practical nature will appeal to all who want to implement key ideas – some of them contrarian or counterintuitive - that have the power to transform the organisation without having to embark upon a massive change management programme.

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

Disruptive Ideas, 10+10+10=1000: the maths of Viral Change that transform organisations
by Leandro Herrero
meetingminds, April 2008
£18.50/US $26.00, Paperback, 300 pages - ISBN: 978-1-905776-04-7
Available to pre-order at: www.waterstones.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, www.meetingminds.com and many other (online) bookshops and outlets.

Different processes and systems

In item 4 of my list, I want to talk about how both Viral Change and traditional change management view the organisational processes and systems.

In the conventional approach, processes and systems are kept inside and well-defined so that the majority in that distribution can repeat them and ensure consistency. Predictability is key.

Viral Change, on the other hand, acknowledges formal processes and systems, but management in Viral Change(TM) mode are very sensitive to the risk of those processes and systems taking over organisational life. Emphasis on behaviours is needed to support processes, versus processes creating behaviours.

If you want to read more about Viral Change, you can read it all in my book of the same title: Viral Change: the alternative to slow, painful and unsuccessful management of change in organisations.

Viral Change distributes people differently

The third item in my list focuses on how different the distribution of people is as seen from the two angles: conventional approach and Viral Change.

In the conventional approach, everything from ‘quality of the components’ to ‘flow’ assumes a bell curve distribution. Management practices consistent with this: communication reaches (or has to reach) the majority of people; change practices need to involve the majority under-the-curve acknowledging that there will be sigma deviations at both sides, for example, casualties of people who ‘will never change’.

However, in Viral Change, the organisation is a network and follows the power laws of networks where (1) a few people have multiple connections, (2) those with greater connections and perhaps influence will continue to have more and (3) spread of information, communication, influence, new behaviours new habits, etc., happens via 'tipping points'.

If you want to read more about Viral Change, you can read it all in my book of the same title: Viral Change: the alternative to slow, painful and unsuccessful management of change in organisations.

Different ‘structures’ in Viral Change

Instalment two in the differences between Viral Change and the conventional change management approach shows that Viral Change sees the ‘structures’ of the organisation differently.

In the conventional approach, connections are established in a tree-like way. Organisation of ‘collaborative spaces’ takes place mainly by design: teams, task forces, committees, ‘solid lines’ and ‘dotted lines’. There is acknowledgment of the existence of a looser network of connections but it’s mainly seen as noise, or an informal communication system which is impossible to tap into, quantify or manage.

Viral Change sees the organisation as a complex system of connections, with high adaptation capabilities. Some of the connections have been formalized by design, providing relatively stable platforms of collaboration (teams, etc.) This designed architecture is superimposed to a far bigger and looser, non-designed, (‘emergent’) network of connections, or structure. A healthy dynamics between the ‘designed’ and ‘emergent’ is the key for effectiveness and success.

If you want to read more about Viral Change, you can read it all in my book of the same title: Viral Change: the alternative to slow, painful and unsuccessful management of change in organisations.

Viral Change sees a different, implicit model of the organisation

In my previous post, I told you I’d be looking at the differences between Viral Change and traditional change management. Here is the first instalment: how the ‘concept of the organisation’ is different.

The conventional approach sees the organisation as machinery of bits and pieces linked by a sort of mecano-hydraulic dynamics. Information, guidelines, pressures, support or anything that flows inside, does so mainly top-down. Pushed from one side, it will have consequences on the other side. ‘Corporate goals are my objectives; my objectives are the basis for yours (direct reports)’, etc. Life percolates down the organisation chart or its ‘collaboration by design' spaces (mainly teams). The pre-determined ‘plumbing system’ described in the organisation chart is the communication highway. Influence and power are assumed to flow down the plumbing system.

Viral ChangeTM takes a different view, one where the organisation is better explained as a living organism sharing many of its characteristics. There is a formal structure of authority (represented by the organisation chart) but, beyond this, there is a multi-directional flow of influences and other dynamics. Self-adaptation and re-configuration are key to survival and grow mechanisms. Managerially, it doesn’t discard a structured system of goals, objectives, etc., but it is less concerned with absolute consistency in ‘cascades’ as long as there are a few overriding strategies and directions. An incredibly rich ‘network world’, often invisible, coexists with the plumbing system.

If you want to read more about Viral Change, you can read it all in my book of the same title: Viral Change: the alternative to slow, painful and unsuccessful management of change in organisations

Viral Change vs. traditional change management

People often ask me, ‘how does Viral Change differ from the traditional view on change management?’ The short answer is, of course, like night from day.

However, in order to illuminate the differences further, I’ll be dedicating my next few posts on clarifying how Viral Change differs from the traditional change management.

There’s 8 items on my list. Watch this space...

Viral Change: a welcome challenge

Chris Rodgers - independent management consultant, business coach and author - welcomes Viral Change's challenge to the traditional view that big change requires big programmes. He posted the following on his blog, Informal Coalitions, and I wanted to share his views with you here as well:


I’ve just finished reading an excellent book on organizational change, Viral Change, written by Leandro Herrero. The cover of the book states:

"Lasting change in the modern organization has less to do with massive ‘communication to all’ programmes and more with the creation of an internal epidemic of success led by a small number of non-negotiable behaviours."

The book was easy and enjoyable to read. And it was pleasing to come across an approach to change that doesn't advocate the top-down, project-based, all-singing-all-dancing methodologies that tend to dominate current management thinking and practice.

Central to Viral Change is the proposition that it is people's everyday behaviours that determine an organization's 'culture', not the formal statements, structures and processes that usually emerge from conventional 'cultural change' programmes. Having established this as a key principle of the Viral Change approach, Herrero identifies 15 conventional assumptions about organizational change. He then sets out to debunk these in the remainder of the book, which is usefully arranged into three complementary sections:

• In the five chapters that make up the first section, Herrero sets out his argument for the Viral Change approach. Here, he explores some of the conventional wisdom on organizational change, before putting forward his own insights into how organizations work and the implications of these for change-leadership practice.
• Section 2, comprises seven chapters which deal with the four main components of Viral Change. These are described as language, new behaviours, tipping points, and rules and rituals (or 'culture'). The framing of the change, the identification of a small set of "non-negotiable behaviours", and the propagation of these behaviours through the organization's informal influence networks provide the main focus of this section.
  
• Finally, Herrero summarises the approach that he tends to use when applying Viral Change in organizations, and ends by revisiting the 15 change management assumptions from a Viral Change perspective.
  

Overall, I found the book an extremely valuable resource as well as an entertaining read. Although it resonates strongly with my own perspective on the dynamics of change, it approaches the subject from a different viewpoint. This provided a healthy mixture of challenge to, and support for, my own thinking, as well as provoking further questions and insights.

Chris Rodgers is an independent management consultant, business coach and author of Informal Coalitions.

A passionate architect of Viral Change

Pierre Morgon, Director of Primary Care at Schering-Plough, knows how to manage delicate changes. And he readily embraces the resulting human challenges. Several times he has gone through the difficult exercise of making teams do things differently at the same time as creating the right environment for them to do it in.

As Pierre Morgon worked with Leandro Herrero on several occasions, Business Digest felt he was ideally placed to provide an insider’s view on how Viral Change really works.

Read the whole interview here >>

Business Digest is a European publisher on business issues. Please visit their website to find more information on Business Digest articles and to subscribe to their monthly magazine on management and strategy.

The “behaviour champions” at Pfizer Ltd

When Business Digest decided to devote a full dossier in their December ’07 issue to Viral Change, they also wanted to show that Viral Change is more than just a concept. So, they interviewed two industry leaders about their experience with Viral Change in their organisations.

When Philip Watts was Director of the sales department within Pfizer Ltd, he knew something had to change. Reps understood the company’s goal and mission, but didn’t really know how to behave towards their colleagues or their customers. That’s when Philip Watts met Leandro and learnt about Viral Change...

Business Digest met up with him and found out all about his experience with with Viral Change within Pfizer.

Read the whole interview here >>

Business Digest is a European publisher on business issues. Please visit their website to find more information on Business Digest articles and to subscribe to their monthly magazine on management and strategy.

Interview with Leandro Herrero

Reader Views' Tyler Tichelaar sat down with Leandro Herrero to determine how he came to write Viral Change and what the thinking is behind the book. But most of all, to discover what it is that makes this book stand out from the traditional management of change.

You can read the full interview here.

Embracing change - a new look at old ideas

Shannon Perry, journalist for eyeforpharma, recently wrote an article about Leandro Herrero and his book, Viral Change, which I thought I’d share with you here:

Change is tricky for any organization but Leandro Herrero, CEO of the Chalfont Project, can help. Herrero's book, Viral Change: The Alternative to Slow, Painful and Unsuccessful Management of Change in Organizations, takes on the task of educating businesses about the nature of change.

There are a lot of myths around how people do or do not embrace change when it comes. The most important thing, according to Herrero, is to understand that behavior drives change, not the other way around. If you want your employees to adopt some new system or process, you must have the behaviors in place that will support that new system. Just because the new system is better, more productive, more efficient, less costly or cumbersome, that doesn't mean your employees will adopt it easily . . . if ever.

Change in organizations, Herrero says, should be more like an infection, spreading new ideas, new ways of working and new behaviors through peer to peer influence. It is much more a viral activity (Viral Change TM), than a rational cascading down of communications from the top.

Information already moves through the company much the same way a virus moves through a body. That means, it doesn't necessarily start at the top and move systematically downward. It moves from multiple loci outwards, spreading through connections until the system is overwhelmed (the "tipping point").

It is up to a company to understand and utilize the "organizational highways" that are already in place - by taking advantage of the networks that exist in every organization and allowing information and change to disseminate outwards, peer to peer, as well as top to bottom.

Only behavioral change is "real" change
In order to get people to adopt new systems and processes, it is necessary to encourage them to make changes at the behavioral level. Like New Year's resolutions, superficial changes may only last a few days or weeks before we revert back to our old patterns. Only change at the behavioral level is effective and lasting. So what are the mechanisms that cause and support this kind of change? And why do we resist?

People resist, says Herrero, not because it is in the nature of human beings to resist all change, good or bad. If people believe that change may impact them badly - by reducing their level of control, for example - they may put up a fight. But if hold-outs see their peers being rewarded for alternative behaviors (the target behaviors), they will be infected by the viral change that's sweeping the company.

Myths of change
One of the myths Herrero wants to debunk is the idea that "big changes require big actions." Just as small frustrations can derail a large project, small, positive changes can have a cumulative effect, building toward a tipping point.

Equally, Herrero says we must let go of the notion that "only change at the top can ensure change within the organization." Of course, ideally, those at the top would be in support of change and ready and willing to model the new behaviors necessary to effect that change. But such support doesn't always happen. Viral change doesn't rely on top-down support. "Distributed leadership" means having small teams of leaders dispersed throughout a company. These leaders can effect change locally that then radiates outward through established networks.

The idea that "people are rational and will react to logical and rational requests for change" may also be more of a hindrance than a help. People are rational and are interested in hearing the reasons and logic behind making a change. But people also need to see how it will affect them and how they can have an effect on the change. If those logical reasons aren't internalized, aren't emotionally integrated, then the behavioral changes will be superficial and fleeting.

Viral change and pharma sales
The same philosophy can be applied to sales force effectiveness. As Herrero says, salespeople are often "taught" a set of responses for situations that might arise. If the customer brings up objection A, reply with reassurance B. This is ineffective because it is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how people change. You may have a very slick presentation with lots of colorful slides and a lot of very reasonable arguments in support of your product, but in order to effect change at the behavioral level, you're going to have to appeal to customers' emotions as well as their reason. When the desired behavior emerges, reinforce and reward it and never forget that even small changes can have major impacts.

Viral Change: the alternative to slow, painful and unsuccessful management of change in organizations - by Leandro Herrero (ISBN 9781905776016 - $29.95 / £19.95) is available from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnesandnoble.com, meetingminds.com and many other (online) retailers. You can contact Leandro Herrero through the website at www.thechalfontproject.com.

Viral Change will come to the rescue of ‘Enterprise 2.0’ transformations

Dr Leandro Herrero will be a keynote speaker at the eyeforpharma Sales Force Effectiveness Conference in Barcelona (2 - 4 April 2008). He will be focussing on how to go beyond ‘more of the same’ and on how to engage in true business transformation.

Dr Herrero will also be leading a workshop at the event, which will focus on how Viral Change can increase the Sales Force Effectiveness.

eyeforpharma is the market leader in pharmaceutical conferences, bringing pharma strategies to the busy executive. Dr Herrero is a frequent speaker at their events and was voted ‘Best Speaker’ at last year’s Monaco event.

You can register for the event here.

Enter the discount code ‘SPK08’ and receive €550 off any standard priced conference pass! Register now because the event WILL sell out!

Leandro Herrero’s audio interview on Viral Change

Inside Scoop Live's Juanita Watson interviewed Leandro Herrero, the author of Viral Change, to gain a full understanding of the concept of Viral Change and the thinking behind the book. The result is a fascinating interview that will provide you with an in-depth view of how the author came to the Viral Change methodology and how this has translated into his book.

You can listen to that interview here.

Business Digest to devote dossier to Viral Change

Business Digest, a European publication on management and strategy, has been helping leaders improve their understanding of the corporate environment and its evolution since 1992. They are also a preferred partner of well-known experts such as HEC Executive Education, Key People Clubs, The European Club of Corporate Universities, WDHB Consulting Group and Crossknowledge. For December 2007, they are preparing a special issue on change.

Business Digest plans to devote one dossier solely to Dr Herrero's book, Viral Change, and the implementation of the Viral Change^TM methodology in actual business situations. The dossier will consist of a 3-page review of the book and one or two interviews with top executives/managers whose companies have implemented Viral Change^TM.

The Chalfont Project Ltd is delighted by this initiative and is working together with Business Digest to bring their readers full insight into the fresh approach of Viral Change^TM.

The answer to myth 5: Everybody needs to be involved in the change

This is an obvious desideratum. But very often it’s unrealistic. Conventional management approaches tell us that we have to communicate everything to everybody so that everybody feels involved. There are different versions of this. In some cases what it means is ‘we really need to involve everybody’. In other cases, it means we need to ‘reach everybody’ so that (a) everybody has a chance to jump in or (b) nobody can say that they haven’t been ‘involved’…

Since traditional management and conventional management of change use ‘communication-to-all’ as a default vehicle, it is not surprising that the tsunami approach is the prevailing one. (I describe two different approaches to change management in my book, Viral Change: the tsunami approach – where big actions are taken, big communication and training programmes to all, washing over the entire company like a tsunami – and the butterfly approach – Viral Change at its best: small events/actions making big changes.) However, our understanding of networks in general and social networks in particular has changed things forever. A small percentage of the organisation is highly connected and is potentially of high influence. Communication-to-all is the most ineffective way to convey the rationale for changes and for expecting that involvement will follow.

You are better off using networks as a vehicle. I am not suggesting that communication is not needed. It is, but we usually have ‘massive communication’ as the single mechanism of hope. Viral Change uses the power of internal networks and their small worlds to effectively reach everybody, but not in the supposedly democratic way of the Town Hall meeting roll-outs. At any point in time, there will be different levels of ‘receptiveness’ in the population and the spread will happen in an erratic way. However, when this is happening, it is not just ‘communication’ as a currency that will follow through. It is endorsement, new behaviours, reinforcements and changes, all in one. Viral Change likes to talk less and do more... with better and faster results.

If you want to read more about Viral Change, or want to revisit some of the other myths, you can read it all again in my book of the same title: Viral Change: the alternative to slow, painful and unsuccessful management of change in organisations.

Recent interviews on Viral Change TM

In between debunking all the myths, I wanted to let you know that Tyler R. Tichelaar of Reader Views interviewed me recently about Viral Change, the book and the concepts behind it. The interview can be found here. There is also an audio version here.