Social Networks and Smoking Cessation - what it might mean for your organization

I heard a great article on NPR this morning about a study which shows that when an individual quits smoking, this has a ripple effect on family members and friends, with the result that those in the social network are more likely to quit as well. 

"There's no doubt that people are influenced by the behaviors of individuals that are not just one degree of separation from them, but two and three degrees of separation. There's a kind of cascading influence," says Nicholas Christakis, a professor at Harvard Medical School and a co-author of the study, which appears in Thursday's edition of The New England Journal of Medicine.

This story was an inspiration, as I see so many companies struggling with behavioral and cultural issues that affect productivity and delivery.  If the clustering / hive intelligence effect that the article describes can work the same way within the social network of an organization, then there's hope for cultural change if a few key individuals will adopt the desired behavior, and spread this to their colleagues.

What issues is your company struggling with, that technology alone can't solve?  Here are a few that I see all the time:

• adopting a new tool, application, or platform
• using a naming or filing convention
• allotting time to non-billable activities that are critical to improving the practice or organization

In most cases there are at least a few people in any company who are doing the "right thing" already.  What will encourage them to spread their behavior to their network, and beyond?  How can the social network be strengthened so that desired behaviors might spread more rapidly?  And how can you start tracking this spread, to be able to show that positive change is happening?

Update - my colleague Marcel pointed me to a similar NPR article about social networks and weight gain / weight loss.

Comments

[Nancy]

We are in the proces of implementing a records retention policy for the company and we see a need for a significant cultural shift in how people view information. When (if?) the mindset shifts away from "this is MY data" to "this is the company's data" I think the job will be much easier. It's very hard to sell an idea based on the need to manage a large repository of shared information according to a set policy when each person sees that information as their own personal property that must be protected from the evil overlords bent on random destruction. The irony is, if they don't let us apply the policy universally and consistently, such action and attitudes could cost the company dearly. Small companies like ours can't easily use mandatory enforcement when our history is one of more folksy, small-step rollout of new processes whose timeframes are driven by the slowest adapters. This situation may usher in a more autocratic, "do it or else" mandate. Otherwise I wonder if the hill will ever be climbed.