When I want to test compensation plan design options or overall program changes and my clients won't/can't consider focus groups, our next stop normally is to talk with a selection of "opinion leaders." And when I am working on a compensation implementation and I want sponsors throughout the organization to advocate for the change, I work with my client to involve "opinion leaders."
Throughout my career, I've believed -- along with you -- that you can pick out the opinion leaders by hanging around and watching closely. But, ah, those scientists. They rely on measures taken via validated procedures.
Through recent research, scientists have determined that we've been wrong about saturated fat. In different research they've shown us that we've are frequently inaccurate when we identify decision makers. Two bedrock beliefs exploded in the same month!
The research on opinion leaders is reported in the McKinsey Quarterly. The article describes a tool developed by social scientists studying social groups whose members are reluctant to participate in formal research. (Think street gangs or drug users.) Instead of trying to chase everyone down, they ask some people to name acquaintances who should be asked to participate in the research. Then they ask some more and so on. One name or group of names start to show up more frequently, and now you know the names of your opinion leaders.
The process has been used in business, too. Here's a excerpt of the McKinsey authors' business findings. Their message is important to our work:
" . . . we've found that influencer patterns almost never follow the organizational chart. Informal influencers exist at all levels of a company and aren't easily identified or predicted by role or tenure . . . Moreover, we find that even when company leaders believe they know who the influencers will be, they are almost always wrong . . .
Most HR practitioners would nod their head sagely at the first part of that quote. Hopefully you can still read while you're nodding, because -- whether we like it or not -- we're among the company leaders referred to in the last sentence. The ones who, research indicates, are almost always wrong.
The article offers some guidelines about the research methodology. It's called "snowball sampling" in the biz. It would be great if someone who's tried it could report in on their experience. Or, if this article inspires someone within a good-sized company to check out the methodology and teach us what they learned. I will happily interview and write an article about any company that wants to follow the methodology formally and help make all of us better at this.
Margaret O'Hanlon, CCP is founder and Principal of re:Think Consulting. She'll join Ann Bares and Dan Walter of the Compensation Cafe to speak the unspoken -- Everything You Do (in Compensation) Is Communication -- in an upcoming book. Margaret brings deep expertise in compensation, career development and communications to the dialog at the Café. Before founding re:Think Consulting, she was a Principal with Towers Watson. Margaret earned her M.S. and Ed.S. in Instructional Technology at Indiana University, Bloomington. Creative writing is one of her outside passions, along with Masters Swimming.
Individual whose ideas and behavior serve as a model to others. Opinion leaders communicate messages to a primary group, influencing the attitudes and behavior change of their followers.
Therefore, in certain marketing instances, it may be advantageous to direct the communications to the opinion leader alone to speed the acceptance of an advertising message.
Posted by: Victoria Kats | 04/07/2014 at 12:02 AM