Why Influence, Not Authority, Determines Transformation Success
Change spreads through trust—not mandates—and it’s the people you overlook who often hold the key.
Despite decades of research and billions spent on strategic initiatives, two out of every three transformations fail. Take the rise in digital transformations, global firms invested over $3.5 trillion in 2023 alone, yet most fall short of expectations. Why? Because while change may be designed in boardrooms, it spreads through hallways.
The usual suspects of failure—employee resistance, cultural inertia, siloed communication—are well known. Yet leaders continue to rely on the same playbook: executive mandates, cascading communications, and role-based leadership structures. These strategies assume people adopt change because they are told to. But real change doesn't flow from the top. It spreads through people.
Executives often assume that authority equals influence. Just because someone manages a team or signs off on budgets, doesn’t mean they can drive change. But influence isn’t given—it’s earned. And ignoring that distinction is where many transformations falter.
As John Kotter and others have emphasized, execution breakdowns—not flawed strategy—are the main culprits of failure. And execution lives in the informal networks and peer relationships that don't show up on organizational charts. This is where Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) offers a breakthrough.
ONA uses network science to map how information, trust, and influence move inside an organization. By surveying employees or analyzing communication metadata, ONA reveals who colleagues turn to for advice, problem-solving, and informal leadership. It identifies the hidden influencers—those with "earned authority"—whose support determines whether change efforts stall or succeed.
What Is Earned Influence?
Earned influence is the trust, credibility, and behavioral gravity a person builds over time—not because of their title, but because others listen to them, seek their input, and follow their lead. These individuals shape culture, spread norms, and legitimize change—not through mandate, but through modeled behavior.
From Theory to Practice: A Case Example
Consider a national bank facing a sweeping digital transformation. With 15,000 employees across multiple business units, consultants projected a five- to ten-year timeline.
Instead, the bank completed the transformation in just 2.5 years—half the time projected—while saving millions in excess consulting fees and lost productivity. The difference? They used ONA to uncover and engage the employees who already shaped behavior and sentiment from the inside.
"By leveraging key influencers—something no consultant had shown us before—we accelerated our change from the bottom up," said the bank's Head of Strategy and Transformation.
You can read that case study here.
When Formal Authority Falls Short
Formal leaders hold positional power, but that doesn't mean people follow them. ONA reveals the social capital that drives trust and behavior. In the bank's case, influential employees with no managerial title emerged as crucial change agents. These were the colleagues others already turned to for help, guidance, or informal insights.
This aligns with research from Mark Granovetter on the "strength of weak ties": employees who bridge disconnected parts of the organization often hold outsized influence in spreading new ideas. These connectors became central to the bank's transformation effort.
Additional research by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler shows that behaviors and attitudes can ripple through social networks up to three degrees of separation. That means influence is not just local—it's contagious. One person adopting a behavior can affect colleagues two or even three links away.
You can imagine a change initiative led by a senior executive with full support from leadership and all the right messaging. The plan is sound, and the incentives are aligned. But behind closed doors, influential team members are skeptical. Their silence speaks louder than any memo. The result? Meetings get canceled. Energy wanes. Adoption stalls. Without the support of those with earned influence, even well-planned changes can quietly unravel.
Designing for Ownership, Not Compliance
The bank didn't stop at identifying influencers. They invited them into the planning process, recognizing a key psychological truth about ownership: people support what they help create. Daniel Kahneman's work confirms that individuals are more likely to adopt changes when they feel they have choice.
To harness this:
Influencers co-designed rollout plans, surfacing early friction points.
The bank launched a peer-led learning academy, deliberately staffed by identified influencers. Because these colleagues already had trust, participation surged—change felt personal, not procedural.
Gamified certifications and visible participation created social proof, reinforcing change momentum through Cialdini's principle of observed behavior.
The Edges of Influence
ONA is powerful to help identify influence, but it isn't a silver bullet. It provides a snapshot in time—not a dynamic view of evolving relationships. Influence is context-dependent and deeply human. But no other tool gives leaders such a clear view of where trust and behavioral traction truly live.
Still, used thoughtfully, ONA can help leaders see their organization more clearly and act more strategically.
What Influence Can—and Can’t—Do
While influence is the missing lever in most transformation efforts, it isn’t inherently aligned with your strategy. Not all influential employees will support change—some may resist it, intentionally or not. And because influence is built through trust and credibility, it’s not something that can be reassigned with a title or incentive.
This is why leaders must do more than map influence—they must engage it. Leadership still involves listening, coaching, and occasionally confronting informal leaders who aren’t aligned.
It’s also true that influence evolves. People leave, networks shift, and sentiments change. But rather than being a limitation, this reinforces the value of treating ONA as a continuous sensing tool—something that helps you adapt in real time rather than rely on static assumptions.
ONA doesn’t replace execution discipline. It enhances it. By aligning your systems and strategies with the true social dynamics of your organization, ONA helps ensure that your plans don’t just make sense—they gain traction.
Putting Influence to Work
Earned influence can complement and strengthen the most evidence-based change management practices. Recent research by Stouten et al., emphasized the importance of gathering facts, designed coalitions, and effective communication. Here’s how firms can better leverage ONA and identify native influence for maximal effect:
Assess the opportunity. Use ONA to diagnose where influence, trust, or communication bottlenecks exist. It helps leaders paint a clearer picture of how work and sentiment flow through the firm, often revealing dynamics missed in traditional assessments.
Select a guiding coalition. Rather than rely solely on title or tenure, use ONA to identify the informal influencers colleagues turn to. These high-social-capital individuals can act as authentic champions of change and help bridge silos.
Communicate the vision. Blend formal and informal communication channels by identifying gaps in the network and using trusted influencers to carry messages into pockets the formal structure may not reach. This dual-channel approach increases clarity and buy-in.
More broadly:
Design for agency. Invite influencers into planning to drive faster, deeper adoption.
Make behavior visible. Use social proof to normalize participation and reinforce new norms.
Real, sustainable transformation doesn’t require more control. It requires more connection. And that starts with knowing who your people follow.
As economic pressures mount and change becomes constant, leaders can’t afford to guess who holds influence. Understanding who holds influence turns guesswork into strategy—and turns strategy into adoption.
References:
Cialdini, R. B. (1984). Influence: The psychology of persuasion. Harper Business.
Christakis, N. A., & Fowler, J. H. (2009). Connected: The surprising power of our social networks and how they shape our lives. Little, Brown Spark.
Granovetter, M. S. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360–1380. https://doi.org/10.1086/225469
IDC. (2024, February 7). Worldwide digital transformation spending guide. International Data Corporation. https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS52305724
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Kotter, J. P. (1995). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review, 73(2), 59–67.
McKinsey & Company. (2021). Losing from day one: Why even successful transformations fall short. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/losing-from-day-one
Stouten, J., Rousseau, D. M., & De Cremer, D. (2018). Successful organizational change: Integrating the management practice and scholarly literatures. Academy of Management Annals, 12(2), 752–788. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2016.0095
Thanks so much for taking the time to read about the role earned influence has in shaping change and transformation outcomes. If you’re interested in the scientific foundations of influence, including how it develops in an organization, check out this story:
