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mandy.thatcher@melcrum.comFebruary 27, 2008
Dear Source Reader
At Melcrum's Employee Engagement Conference in London in May, Nigel Edwards, head of internal communications at pharmaceutical company Pfizer, will talk about how the company engaged field workers in a major change program, by using informal communication methods over and above more traditional channels.
Spreading "viral change"
Around 70% of Pfizer's workforce are "hard-to-reach" field workers, based from individual home offices. Some staff don’t have access to broadband, only dial-up. Typically, most behavior-change programs use a major rollout, but Pfizer has taken a different approach – viral change – which uses the organization’s networks and informal communication.
The idea is based on a concept developed by Leandro Herrero. Instead of a big set of actions cascaded through the organization, Herrero's approach is to develop a set of behaviors among a small group of people and use their network to "infect" the organization with those behavioral changes. As a result, Herrero says the organization produces a more sustainable change.
Behavioral champions
Edwards explains how this works. Along with other employees, "behavioral champions" also received communication material and activities. But in addition, these champions participated in a two-day workshop "to really get under the skin of the behavior". Each quarterly workshop focused on two behaviors and provided an opportunity for champions to share "infecting" practices and say what had worked for them.
"What they do is simply talk with colleagues in their social network up, down and across the organization about the behaviors as part of their everyday working lives," Edwards explains. "They recognize others who demonstrate the behaviors and importantly, role model them."
Nigel will share the full story at Melcrum's Employee Engagement Conference in London in May.
See you next week!
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