Influencing Up

CHAPTER 15

Influence across Multiple Organizations

It is difficult enough to influence one powerful person, but trying to impact a high-powered group is even more complicated. The true challenge is in having to sway members of many different organizations—often with very different agendas—in a similar direction. Everything we have discussed about using a partnership mind-set, diagnosing highly varied and sometimes imperceptible currencies, finding something useful to offer in exchange for what is needed, comes into play.

To help you see how this can all come together, we introduce you to Barbara Spangler, who took on a monumental and demanding project in her community with multiple stakeholders. She succeeded by using a combination of already developed skills, learning along the way, and summoning the courage to do what was needed even when it was personally uncomfortable for her.

After she retired from GE Healthcare, where she had served as a bridge builder between university researchers and corporate engineering designers in interventional cardiology, Barbara wanted to do something useful with her new freedom. While she was exploring ideas, she found herself in the middle of an opportunity to practice making something complex and valuable happen. In fact, the project ended up becoming so complex that Barbara decided to add to her skills and knowledge by entering a master’s of business administration (MBA) program. Massachusetts-based Babson College had launched a hybrid MBA in ...