by Janus Boye
In a recent Harvard Business Review article called "Your Company's Secret Change Agents" , the authors suggest a bottom-up approach to creating lasting organizational change.
Of course, content management, intranet or really any digital project can change organizations dramatically.
Typically "champions" are educated and trained with the intention that they should be change agents for the rest of the organization.
The authors argue that
"too often, these individuals generate unconstructive dependency from their teams."
I would agree with this, having often seen a "them and us" mentality in projects.
Instead the authors suggest to make the group the guru.
As they say:
"Because the innovators are members of the community who are 'just like us,' disbelief and resistance are easier to overcome."