As a kid riding through the southern Sierra Madre, my uncle Jim Smith used to point to a brush fire in the distance and say, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” Now to a kid, that seemed like stating the obvious, but as I grew older, I understood what he was trying to teach us.
That meaning of the adage was that sometimes you only see the effects of a problem and not the cause. The smoke, which has a lethal threat of its own, only signaled a more serious problem that had to be addressed. Sure, if the wind changed directions, then the smoke would not be blowing across our path, problem solved…right? Obviously not, the changing wind would just push the problem into another direction, maybe with more dire consequences.
Another type of signal may also indicate a good cause, or an opportunity. For example, if the brush fire smoke turned white, you would assume that the fire crews were getting the upper hand.
A McKinsey Quarterly article, Tapping the power of hidden influencer’s by Duan, Sheeren, and Weiss discussed at tool that social scientists use to identify sex workers and drug users can also help senior executives find the people most likely to catalyze, or sabotage organizational-change efforts.
Now this lines up real nicely to Jim Collin’s concept of “getting the right people on the bus” to enable a company to move forward before the strategic plan is in place.
Duan posses the challenge of how company leaders can identify certain people beforehand to harness these individuals’ energy, creativity, and goodwill that will benefit the company.
The article stated that, “One way we’ve found is “snowball sampling,” a simple survey technique used originally by social scientists to study street gangs, drug users, and sex workers—hidden populations reluctant to participate in formal research. These brief surveys(two to three minutes) ask recipients to identify acquaintances who should also be asked to participate in the research. Thus, one name or group of names quickly snowballs into more, and trust is maintained, since referrals are made anonymously by acquaintances or peers rather than formal identification.”
This method lays out four principles to tap the power of hidden influencers:
1. Think broad, not deep.
2. Trust, but verify
3. Don’t dictate—cocreate
4. Connect the dots.
These are good points, but the challenge is to implement them. Too many management level persons set a strategy in place, but delegate it to others to implement. A detailed implementation plan must be designed with weekly communication and accountability. Even though you know “where you are going,” you still have to steer the car and add fuel. Stepping up as a leader is one thing, delegating and managing the tasks to the individuals you identified is another.
If you don’t execute your strategic plan with the right people, you will see smoke. And that smoke could be a raging fire that can cripple the whole process. This process discussed in article helps a manager to see the smoke of a fire that has not yet taken place. However, once the project has begun, all those involved should be diligent to spot smoke from a distance.