I was reading "The Psychology of Change Management" in the McKinsey Quarterly and found some interesting thoughts about the psychology of change management! Of the four conditions cited, the use of role models seemed particularly apt.
People must also see colleagues they admire modelling it and need to have the skills to do what is required of them.
Not only is this a nice play in the direction of Social Network Analysis, but the identification and management of such role models can have a major bearing on people's own responses in such situations. The article continues;
Say that a well-respected senior leader is waxing lyrical about making the culture less bureaucratic and even conforming to the new regime by making fewer requests for information. If the sales reps in the company canteen spend every lunchtime complaining that "we’ve heard this a thousand times before and nothing happened," individuals will feel less pressure to change their behavior. Change must be meaningful to key groups at each level of the organization.
The ability to systematically influence and manage the sales rep(s) via role models and mentors in the above example is key. However, whilst lots of efforts are placed on overt forms of influence, the use of a covert approach via 4G or Social Network Analysis, has, in our experience, served as a great complement to more typical 'top down' approaches including internal communications, facilitation, various incentives and the simple use of power.
N.B. I haven't seen too much written about role models per se (a public role) but have found much more about mentoring (a private role). That said, Lisa Haneberg writes about the impact of relationships and Matt Blumberg talks about positive and negative role models.
