Institute of Internal Communication

Dr Leandro Herrero, CEO of The Chalfont Project and Managing Partner of Viral Change, says top-down, didactic communication doesn't achieve anything.

He says if you really want to make a difference in an organisation you need peer-to-peer influence and social copying.

He had plenty of examples of social copying in action – the recent events in the Middle East for example, where an appetite for change has become infectious.

“What we are seeing in those regions is herd behaviour,” he said. “Why now and not seven months ago? Some social media is helping, but I don't think that Twitter is a significant trigger for this.”

So where else do we see social copying?

Dr Herrero said financial markets copy each other; laughter is infectious; what about collective hysteria; dieting and obesity; voting – the list goes on.

As he puts it: “So are we Homo Sapiens or Homo Imitans?”

“The senior management role model is completely overestimated,” he said. “These people have lots of power, but we know very well that peer-to-peer influence is more powerful when it comes to getting things done.”

He described what he called the two communication worlds.

In World I the currency is information - facts, information cascaded down. A push world that loves hierarchy.

In World II we deal with behaviours. Behaviours that are exhibited and copied, spread by infection - an epidemic.

“There are unwritten rules,” he said. “World II is a pull regime with unwritten rules. You do what everyone else is doing. It is like a mountain fire - you don't know how it started, but all you know is that the whole mountain is on fire.

“You cannot change behaviours by dropping information on people. Behaviours don't like PowerPoint. Change is not measured by the number of workshops you hold.

“You need to change behaviours - stories of behavioural change are the weapons of mass diffusion,” he said.

He also warned about having change champions who actually do nothing. “I don't want ambassadors, I want activists,” he said.

“Get horizontal, get people to talk to talk each other. Having 300 friends on Facebook does not mean you have 300 friends – it means you have had 300 clicks,” he said.

And his final suggestions?

• Provide constant social proof of small progress with lots of storytelling.

• Promote the positive, don't highlight the negative.

• Disrupt silent majorities – these have been responsible for genocide.

• Disrupt the negative perception of a localised problem.

• Tell people about the advances, not the problem.

• Talk less and do more – for every push, have a pull ready.

• Think twice before you spend your budget on the push.

• Become an activist.

• De-clutter, detox, simplify your channels.

Further information on Dr Herrero’s books is available at www.meetingminds.com Background on viral change is available at www.viralchange.com