Framework of Support: How Do You Put the Right People in the Right Places—and Find Unexpected Allies?

By Huiying You

At the beginning of any organizational change initiative, large or small, teams are often constrained by the limited number of people directly involved. Very quickly, they fall into anxiety about who should do what.

That is why many change efforts begin falling behind in the very first week of implementation. The core problem is often simple: the right people have not been placed in the right roles, and those leading the change feel as though they are fighting alone.

Switch One: Uncover Hidden Allies and Broader Support

Look for the people you never imagined could help

The challenge:
Change teams often feel that they are carrying the entire effort themselves, as though only the handful of people on the project team are doing the real work. In doing so, they overlook people around the edges who may have a major influence on whether the effort succeeds or fails.

Breaking through the challenge: identify different levels of involvement

The Framework of Support organizes people into four concentric levels according to how deeply they need to be involved:

• Core: the people who make the decisions.
• Participation: the key people who are deeply involved in carrying out the work.
• Support: those who provide specific resources when needed, such as technical expertise, funding or space.
• Informed: people who may not be doing the work themselves but still need to be kept informed. If they are overlooked, information gaps may create unnecessary resistance or problems.

This has several advantages.

Avoid treating everyone the same

Not everyone needs to be fully involved all the time.

Once the levels are clear, you can ask the Support group for resources and the Participation group for time and direct engagement. That significantly reduces the cost and complexity of communication.

Reduce hidden resistance

Many change efforts are undermined by people in the Informed circle who feel left out or blindsided.

By identifying them early, a small investment in keeping them informed can prevent unnecessary resistance later.

Build a psychological contract

When someone is clearly positioned in the Support group rather than the Participation group, the pressure on them decreases.

Paradoxically, that often makes them more willing to provide the specific help that is needed at a critical moment.

Switch Two: Move from Titles to Real Names

Writing down a specific person is where communication and connection begin

The challenge:
When people fill in a Framework of Support, their instinct is often to write down job titles or departments.

They write things like:

• “Human Resources”
• “Director of R&D”

This may sound professional, but in practice it can block action.

You cannot build a real relationship with a “department.”

Breaking through the challenge: a real name is the key that unlocks action

The facilitator needs to encourage participants to write down the name of a specific person.

If they cannot name anyone, that support point may still be only an idea rather than a real connection.

Once a job title becomes a person’s name, support shifts from an administrative expectation to a real commitment and relationship.

The facilitator should also help the team identify clear owners for critical tasks. And if an important person is difficult to reach, the team can look for an intermediary—someone who can make the connection.

You will see how this works in the case examples below.

Switch Three: Scan the Blind Spots in Cross-Boundary Collaboration

Help the team identify sources of support they have never considered before

The challenge:
A team’s field of vision is often limited by the organization chart.

People tend to look only for the leaders directly responsible for an issue or for the departments whose formal functions appear to match the task.

As a result, the energy for change can quickly become exhausted.

Breaking through the challenge: look beyond organizational boundaries

The facilitator helps the team widen its field of vision and uncover support points that are usually hidden.

The goal is to move beyond the organizational box and scan for informal influence and cross-boundary stakeholders that are easily overlooked.

The deeper logic

The Framework of Support is not fundamentally about defending the original plan.

It is about protecting the possibility of experimentation.

By identifying unexpected allies—perhaps a respected former union leader, a highly skilled technical expert, or even a front-desk employee who is curious about a new system—the team can build a broader support network.

That gives the change effort a wider base of support and greater resilience when difficulties arise.

Case One: A School’s Strategic Change—and the Power of a Community Auntie

Background

A school was implementing a strategic change initiative.

The team repeatedly felt that it did not have enough people, and whenever cooperation from government agencies or parents was required, implementation became extremely difficult.

What the Framework of Support revealed

The facilitator guided the group through a four-dimensional scan:

• volunteer teams
• the local community
• private enterprises
• government

The teachers were surprised to discover how many potential supporters existed across the community, among parents, and within local businesses.

Finding an intermediary

As the group began naming specific people, one teacher mentioned that she knew a very enthusiastic older woman in the local neighbourhood.

The result

The school placed this community “auntie” in the Support circle and used the teacher as an intermediary to make the connection.

The woman went on to organize a series of activities in the community to support the school, helping to ease tensions between families and the school.

What had once seemed like impossible community support suddenly became possible—because the right person had been placed in the framework.

Case Two: Building a Support Network for Digital Transformation

The usual approach

A company creates a Digital Transformation Office made up entirely of technical staff.

When implementation begins, the business departments react with sarcasm and resistance, feeling that technology is being imposed on the business.

The project team becomes isolated.

The ToP approach: using the Framework of Support

Put the right people in the right places.
Instead of writing “Business Department support,” the team identified several respected business employees who enjoyed experimenting with tools and had credibility among their peers.

Their names were written into the framework, and they were embedded directly into the process as seed ambassadors.

Find broader support.
Unexpectedly, the team discovered that the Administration Department was struggling with inefficient use of office space.

The digital transformation initiative was then linked to the department’s need for smarter workplace solutions, gaining access to administrative resources, space and practical support.

Respond quickly.
A decision-making committee made up of directors from different departments was established to deal specifically with resource bottlenecks.

The result

The transformation was no longer the burden of a few technical specialists.

It became a collaborative effort in which multiple groups could see a benefit and move forward together.

The Facilitator’s Discipline

When facilitating a Framework of Support process, what tests you most is your ability to hold steady in two areas.

Precise positioning

When facing a complex project, can you resist the temptation to use a generic administrative template?

Can you instead guide the team to identify the key stakeholders above, below and across the system according to the unique needs of this particular project?

The ability to see beyond boundaries

When the team becomes trapped in complaints such as “We do not have enough people” or “We do not have enough money,” can you help them look beyond the obvious?

Can you help them find the equivalent of the “community auntie” who has been there all along?

It places the right people where they can contribute most and helps isolated change leaders discover that they may have far more support around them than they realized.

When should you use the Framework of Support? How do you use it well?

A deeper exploration and hands-on practice are included in our Leading Dynamic Teams course.