The point of doing influence mapping is to help you identify supporters, opponents, and “convincibles”—people who can be persuaded with the right influence strategy.
Supporters will approve of your agenda because it advances their own interests, because they respect you, or because they see merit in your ideas. To identify your potential supporters, look for the following:
- People who share your vision for the future. If you see a need for thoroughgoing change, look for others who have pushed for changes like those you are promoting.
- People who have been quietly working for change on a small scale, such as a plant engineer who has found an innovative way to significantly reduce waste.
- People new to the company who have not yet become acculturated to its mode of operation.
Whatever supporters’ reasons for backing you, do not take their support for granted. It is never enough merely to identify support; you have to solidify and nurture it.
Opponents will oppose you no matter what you do. They may believe that you are wrong. Or they may have other reasons for resistance to your agenda, such as the following:
- Comfort with the status quo. They resist changes that might undermine their positions or alter established relationships.
- Fear of looking incompetent. They fear seeming or feeling incompetent if they have trouble adapting to the changes you are proposing and perform inadequately afterward.
- Threat to values. They believe you are promoting a culture that spurns traditional definitions of value or rewards inappropriate behavior.
- Threat to power. They fear that the change you are proposing (such as a shift from team-leader decision making to team consensus decision making) would deprive them of power.
- Negative consequences for key allies. They fear that your agenda will have negative consequences for others they care about or feel responsible for.
When you meet resistance, try to grasp the reasons behind it before labeling people as implacable opponents. Understanding resisters’ motives will equip you to counter the arguments your opponents will marshal. You may find that you can convert some early opponents. For example, you may be able to address fears of incompetence by helping people develop new skills. At the same time, it is essential not to waste valuable time and energy trying to win over staunch opponents.
Finally, convincibles are the swing voters: people who are undecided about or indifferent to change, and people you think you could persuade once you understand and appeal to their interests. Once you have identified convincibles, look into what motivates them. People are motivated by different things, such as status, financial security or wealth, job security, positive social and professional relationships with colleagues, and opportunities to tackle new and stimulating challenges. So take the time to try to figure out what they perceive their interests to be. Start by putting yourself in their shoes: If you were them, what would you care about? If it is possible to engage them directly in dialogue, then ask questions about how they see the situation, and engage in active listening. If you have connections to other people in their organization, then you should use them to learn. If you don’t, you might think about judiciously cultivating them.
Meanwhile, ask yourself whether there are competing forces that might tip convincibles toward resisting you. For example, making them see that their interests are compatible with yours would prompt them to support you, but the threat of losing a comfortable status quo might trigger resistance. Interests and competing forces should be part of what you undertake to learn about the politics of your organization through conversations, exploration of past decisions, and observation of group interactions.