5 Steps to Influence Mapping : Alchemy of Change

Influence: getting them to melt in your hands

This is from <a href="http://www.alchemyofchange.net" title="http://www.alchemyofchange.net/ (http://www.alchemyofchange.net)">Alchemy of Change by Gideon Rosenblatt who has written several thoughtful articles on the same topic….

Part 1:   Change Happens Through People – Even at Walmart

Part 2:   5 Steps to Influence Mapping

Part 3:   Influence: the Flip Side of Permeability

Part 4:   How to Strengthen Your Organization’s Influence Mapping

Each of us depends on our ability to create change, and quite often that change is happening within an institutional context.  We all recognise that there’s usually a handful of relationships that play a disproportionately large role in bringing those changes about. That’s part of the reason it’s hard to truly separate institutional change from personal change.

The process by either “influence mapping” or “power mapping” is hard and here’s a quick look at how this incredibly important tool for influencing change works. There are five steps:

  1. Articulate your desired outcome.
  2. Identify the decisions that lead to this outcome and the decision makers who make them.
  3. Map all the people who influence these decision makers on this particular issue. Include people who support your outcome, oppose it, as well as those who are neutral on it.
  4. Prioritize this list of influencers based on a composite of their importance and your ease of reaching them.
  5. Follow their social networks until you connect with people who you believe will be willing to advocate for your desired outcome.

Or you could just ask them :)