Implementation Tips & Tricks: How Power Mapping Can Enhance How You Approach Your Change Initiatives
By Julie Battilana, Harvard University, and Tiziana Casciaro, University of Toronto
When faced with an environment you wish to influence—particularly if you have a new role or a change initiative to advance—understanding who is best positioned to help you is critical. You will need help because effecting change, even a modest one, is hard. Change triggers primitive signals warning our safety may be at risk. In effect, we are hardwired to favor constancy and resist change.
To identify potential supporters, resistors, and fence-sitters you can persuade to join your cause, you need to build a detailed power map. Power is the ability to influence the behavior of others. It comes from having control over resources those people value. Power mapping, then, is about answering the following questions:
Who are the powerful players in your immediate circle, your organization or institution, your industry or profession?
What resources do those players value, and what valued resources does each have control over?
What are the alliances or coalitions among those players?
What is the nature of your relationship with each of them?
Power mapping may sound sneaky to some, but it is essential to having any kind of positive impact. People often struggle to draw accurate power maps but just two skills—observation and inquiry—can enhance your effectiveness as a change agent.
Be a master observer
The best power mappers we know are keen observers of their social environment. For example, instead of mentally checking out during the long meetings we all must sometimes endure, they gain invaluable insights by carefully noting other attendees’ behavior, verbal and nonverbal, and analyzing their interactions: who defers to whom; what alliances seem to emerge; which conflicts lurk beneath the surface; who is gaining influence and who’s losing it.
Beyond meetings, take note of who in your environment has access to the most valued resources and why. Notice what gets someone a raise, a promotion, or a plum assignment, and you’ll know what the organization values (whether they admit it or not). And once you know it, you can find ways to build your influence by delivering those valued resources or challenging what is valued in the first place.
Ask the right questions
What is your position in the power map? How do you know if you’re prominent in the informal network of the organization? In our research, we found that you can answer this question with surprising accuracy by asking yourself another question: Do people come to me for advice? If they do, you are likely in a position to both influence them and learn from them.
If it’s not you, then who is influential? Whom do people go to for advice? Beyond observation, inquiry will help you make that assessment. Start with people you’re closer to and ask questions like: “Who do people listen to around here?” “Who do they admire?” “Who has been successful? Who has struggled? Why?” “How has this place changed since you’ve joined?” And then ask them: “Who else is a good person to learn from?” This snowball technique broadens your sources of insight and your power map.
Then you can deepen it, by mapping not just who is powerful, but also who is likely to be your ally, your opponent, or someone you can sway.
Julie Battilana is a professor of business administration and social innovation at Harvard University. Tiziana Casciaro is a professor of organizational behavior at the University of Toronto. They are the authors of Power, for All: How It Really Works and Why It’s Everyone’s Business (Simon & Schuster, 2021), from which this article has been adapted.
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