Who's the Herbie of your Online Community?

Identifying and nurturing your Herbie can be a powerful tactic for growing your online community.

In The Goal, Eliyahu Goldratt illustrates the “theory of constraints” in change initiatives by comparing it to a scout troop on a hike. The scouts reasoned that the slowest member of the troop, named Herbie, was the primary determinant of how quickly they could reach their destination.

When launching your online community effort, whether it is a customer service or an employee collaboration site, it’s worth thinking about who the Herbie in your community is. While the destination may be abstract or indistinct, there definitely is one if you have gone to the trouble of thinking about the business and community goals.

And you're going to get there only as quickly as your Herbie is willing to travel.

So just who is your Herbie?

At first blush, you might believe that your Herbie is that individual who was most entrenched and stubborn about the ways things previously got done. For example, this person might be someone who insists upon posting a question via email to a select few rather than going to your employee community. But is this precisely the right person upon whom to focus your efforts?

When you are in the process of launching a community, it’s important to start building a following quickly, which usually means focusing your efforts upon the early adopters until you can reach critical mass (read more about the Online Community Lifecycle). Is it worthwhile for your Community Managers to spend their time trying to win over the one or two people in your organization who are digging in their heels the most vehemently?

Maybe not.

In the rush toward community adoption, the most staunch, jaded enemy of online communities is frequently left behind. These individuals will rail about how nothing ever changes, and how this new system or that will not make a difference in how things really get done at the company. These individuals are potentially poisonous when trying to effect change of any sort and it could be a fruitless battle to try and change the opinions of such an individual.

However, not all opponents of change are entrenched or so radically against change. While the opponent of change I just described may be set to a volume of “10,” it’s better to focus at least some time on the individuals who are a “7” or and “8” when it comes to resisting change. These individuals are maybe not so calcified in their beliefs nor so religious about how business as usual is, was, and always will be the best way to do things. These individuals can be won over.

What’s more, this variety of Herbie can be one of your greatest proponents in bringing about organizational change. An effective, outspoken person who realizes that some change may actually be good and who is given the opportunity to contribute and shown how to get started with a little more care than you spend on your early adopters (and let’s face it, your early adopters are figuring it out for themselves and will need less hand holding), can become a supercharged champion of your community effort.

Consider the following ways to identify and get started with this individual:

Identify all of the Herbie’s in your Community Population

Depending upon whether you are starting an internal or external community, it is worth the time to start compiling a list of all the individuals who may have an issue with the change that community will mean, in terms of how work gets done or how the organization has always operated. Find a way to begin rating these individuals. Take some notes about ways in which each person might oppose how the community works and how you might coach them to see how the approach is more effective.

Of the individuals you have identified, decide who you’ll choose as a focus for your attention. You may reach out to these individuals with a message like “As we are thinking about how the new online community will help us to get work done, I know you have some very specific thoughts about possible roadblocks  and I’d like to hear about them to see if the new platform can address them."

Finally, when you start evaluating this list you may want to give special emphasis not just to executives but also to middle managers and informal leaders. All three levels can be Herbie's and their high degree of trust and influence may make them especially powerful converts if you can gain their buy-in.

Invite your Herbie to an Elite Group

In a recent post, Richard Millington (disclosure: I work with Rich) poses the idea of using elite groups to model the behaviors of a new community. By inviting a splinter group of elite power users, you can start to identify the characteristics of someone who is a champion of community. Putting a carefully selected Herbie among this group (see the next paragraph for more on this), you stand a good chance of activating the inner Champion of this individual.

Don’t Let your Herbie Poison the Well

While it’s great to start spending time with your Herbie, it’s going to be a judgement call to recognize a personality type who, if put into a social situation at a company event, will dominate the conversation with complaints or worries and who could potentially turn sentiment about your online community in the wrong direction! These individuals should never be invited to a live meeting unless you feel sure that they will not start turning everyone against the community.

As someone who started out as a laggard, who resists change, your Herbie can empathize deeply with any new users who are having trouble getting how this new platform can help them to solve a problem or achieve a goal.

For more content about building thriving online communities, I invite you to visit feverbee.com or contact me directly.