Formalizing the Informal: Creating Change through Informal Networks

Daniel Seewald Founder & CEO of Deliberate Innovation, Former Head of World Wide Innovation at Pfizer

On a rainy April day in 1978, a stranger walked into a small, non-descript laboratory and cautiously whispered into a young man’s ear. The young man immediately collected his belongings and walked out the door. That evening, the young man, after surreptitiously connecting with other young men like him, returned home and brought with him a forbidden item. Matzo. Unleavened bread for the Jewish holidays. That man, my fatherin-law, lived under the oppressive Soviet regime, the epitome of an inflexible hierarchy. The Soviet system systematically stamped out parallel networks. Informal networks posed a threat to the communist regime’s propaganda machine. Yet somehow my father in-law’s informal network not only survived, it successfully spread its cultural values, beliefs, and practices. Informal networks need not be political nor religious insurgencies. In most large corporations’, informal networks are widespread. They often go by the name peer groups, communities of practice, or have no name at all. In fact, at a large healthcare company, employees formed a secret whiskey tasting society that doubled as a group that met to share organizational gossip and share insider tips on internal opportunities. Informal networks often fill a void in knowledge or practices. Although informal networks usually lack structure and leadership, they endure because they share a common purpose and trust amongst the members. In leading historian, Niall Ferguson’s, The Square and the Tower, he argues that the “real power has long resided in the networks in the town square” rather than the formal structure in the tower. The formation of informal networks in an organization does not have to be left to chance. Having architected one of the largest innovation movements in the Fortune 100, there are deliberate steps that can be taken to launch an innovation movement that is based on informal networks.

Creating an Innovation Movement at Pfizer

In 2013, Pfizer faced an uncertain future. With several blockbuster brands approaching their patent expiration, then CEO, Ian Read, recognized that Pfizer had to signal to investors and employees that innovation its pipeline of people. The CEO was eager to spread an innovation mindset and culture across the 90,000+ employees. But there was also a recognition that change cannot be easily accomplished through leadership decree. Leaders can demand that their employees follow rules and regulations, but they cannot readily shift the hearts and minds of their employees. To realize the CEO’s vision, my team decided to build a very different change management model. Rather than build a traditional, top-down program, we modeled it on a decentralized, social movement.

The Dare to Try initiative at Pfizer began with centralized support but quickly pivoted to a decentralized approach. Employees from across the various geographic regions and divisions were initially recruited based on skill as well as passion for innovation. The role of these champions centered on three objectives: (1) to evangelize the Dare to Try mindset and practices, (2) to apply these practices to solve local challenges with local teams and (3) to recruit and mentor members of the local network. Although these champions operated with considerable autonomy, my headquarters-based team complemented their efforts by pulsing periodic promotion, training and resources to help support the efforts of these local

went beyond its pipeline of products and extended to clusters of champions. Within a couple of years, these clusters began to form into self-sustaining networks with unique identities, personalized communication channels and strategic plans.

These networks proved to be an effective means of reaching employees in an authentic way. With only 600 active champions in the network, we estimated that they reached a majority of the 90,000+ employees on multiple occasions. And after three years from the program launching, the impact of Dare to Try was evident. Performance data showed a steady increase in both the volume of innovation sessions, and more importantly, a sharp increase in new creative concepts entering teams’ strategic plans. Equally as important as performance, an ongoing attitudinal survey showed a remarkable change in the collective belief in the organization’s ability to innovate as well as individual’s ability to act more innovatively. But perhaps most telling were the fingerprints left all around the organization. Emails and thank-you notes were regularly sent to champions in the informal networks. Employees proudly emblazoned Dare to Try stickers on laptops and office doors. Employees were acting more entrepreneurial as could be seen by the spin-out of a novel healthcare start-up, known as Springworks Therapeutics. Even leaders routinely inserted “Daring to Try” as a new action-verb in their communications, including in the Pfizer annual report.

Host a Haven.

Changemakers also need physical spaces where they can plant their flag. Across the globe, Dare to Try spaces began to emerge. It started with my team creating a space in our New York Headquarters and then socializing a simple manifesto on how to build your own. Within a short amount of time there were similarly inspired spaces popping up all around the world, from Groton, Connecticut to Zurich, Switzerland. These spaces signal that the network and movement are legitimate and that a haven has been created where the usual rules and behaviors are different from the traditional corporate culture. They also become a capsule of the change that you want to see across the entire organization.

Know thy Network.

One of the lynchpins in jumpstarting your informal networks is deeply understanding the existing network structures first. Many networks already existed within Pfizer and these networks likely exist within every organization. At the outset, our team conducted a network analysis of the key influencers, central connectors and innovation evangelists. Initially, our method was qualitative in nature but, over time, we used more quantitative methods through employee surveys and an organizational network analysis (ONA). By bringing together a heterogenous team and conducting interviews across the organization, many of these hidden networks and influencers were characterized and mapped. From this research, we were able to recruit our first groups of champions, many of whom remained actively involved more than five years later and would later lead their local networks.

Forgo the Formalization.

There is a very delicate balance between galvanizing a grassroots-like movement with decentralized networks and maintaining executive support. While my team tracked and reported a battery of performance and attitudinal metrics to demonstrate the ongoing change, we also tried to avoid the formalization that would undermine the grassroots nature of the movement. While it remained important that the champions receive manager support, we eschewed the traditional sanctioning of the roles within the Human Resources system. And while we worked with the champion network to set-up goals and objectives, we intentionally did not measure or report on them and allowed for it to be a individually-driven process. Treating these professionals as adults went a long way to keeping them engaged. Perhaps most interesting, we ignored the traditional change management approach of creating “train the trainers” and leveraged the insights from the Montessori Method, which emphasizes guided choice, encouraging freedom within limits, and building a reliance on networks of experienced peers, to reinforce learned concepts.

Change does not happen in a day and change is rarely led by a single person. Creating real and lasting change requires a thoughtful and deliberate approach that should be led by the very people who you want to be the change in the company. While it is certainly much easier to build an internal public relations campaign and issue an edict, as many companies will do, these programs inevitably fail the moment your leadership team stops promoting it. Instead, by tapping into the existing structure and nature of informal networks in your organization, you can turn your organizational decree into a movement that transforms the DNA of your organization.

Build the Blockchain.

Quality and trust within the network are of high importance. As the informal network evolves and grows, there is an increased risk that current and future members may fail to meet the desired standards of the network. This can undermine the credibility and value of the network. It is essential that the network become increasingly rigorous and self-policed in its membership. We saw this practice in action within an informal network in Canada. Network members wanted to expand their membership and undertook the responsibility of recruiting, designing training and coaching the new members. Similar to the way a blockchain works, they took recommendations on new network members, but it was up to the network to validate. When multiple members on the network chain validated a person, a new network member was added to and trusted by the “blockchain.”

Provide a Pulpit.

While my head-quarters team stayed involved in teaching, coaching and supporting the various champion networks, the most meaningful action we took was to facilitate communication within and amongst the various champion networks. Storytelling and conversation must happen without intermediation in order for the networks to stand on their own. To do that, my team provided multiple platforms for connecting the networks. A regular “talk show” series was held in which my team would blend late night TV entertainment together with corporate information sharing. We also designed and normalized the regular use of an internal social media platform that enabled network members around the world to connect and share ideas and practices. By building out the infrastructure and normalizing it, over time the networks independently operated and communicated with one another, which built familiarity and trust. Even smaller micro-networks would form, as we found in Latin America, where a WhatsApp group formed to request immediate help or input from the local network of champions.

Harnessing the Power of Informal Networks

The staying power of the Dare to Try movement was more than good fortune. It was a function of deliberate experimentation and learning. Over time, several principles emerged that were major contributors to its success. Here are a few of the insights that I gleaned over those years that can help an organization create a more authentic cultural movement.