Decision makers

The person that you meet, greet and contract with is often not the true decision maker. He or she may hold the title, reserved parking space and corner office but in reality may just be a puppet the organization presents to the world. Sitting behind this person will be a range of hidden power brokers. These are the people who can green light your proposal with the blink of an eye. Alternatively, they can consign it to the bottom of an in-tray to collect dust for months. Unless you are able to root out and map the genuine decision makers it is likely that your effort will be frustrated before the change starts.

This mapping process is akin to playing a game of poker with a group of strangers in a strange town with a strange pack of cards. You have to develop intuition and blind sight, the ability to look beyond the words and external factors and understand the interplay that takes place between people. The person dealing the cards may be the perceived leader at the table but in reality there are subtle messages that indicate who really wields the power to take decisions.

As an example, consider the following decision-making types that are found in most organizations:

• Kingmaker: This is the person who prefers to hold and wield control through another individual. Just as Rasputin influenced the Russian monarchy in its last years, the kingmaker will find people who are pliable and can be presented to the public as a passable face for the organization. The best way to tackle this person is by offering yourself as an ally rather than an aggressor. There is every chance that they might perceive you are entering their kingdom to do damage. Take the time to understand their power base and their rationale for sitting as kingmaker rather than king and how you might be able to help them in their goals.

• Queen of hearts: One individual might have the formal power to agree a contract with you but another "queen of hearts" may hold a greater degree of influence over people in the organization. There is every chance that this person is operating from a value-based rather than a logical standpoint as their power is likely to be at the desire level on the change ladder. You need to understand why this person appeals to the consumers. Once you have done that you can appreciate how best to gain their confidence. The one danger with this type of power broker is that they can go quickly from being in favour to being ostracized by the crowd. You must always watch which way the wind is blowing to ensure that you don't fall from grace with the queen.

• Knave: The knave is the common individual that sits at the bottom of the organization pile — deemed to be of little consequence by the senior people within it. However, it can often be the "little people" that have the greatest influence over a business. Think of the gatekeepers that can make your life hell in a client organization — the car park attendant or the director's PA. Although these people might not block the high-level processes within a change, they can cause significant problems once the project is rolling if they are not brought into alignment.

• Joker: This is the unexpected wildcard — the person who appears to be invisible most of the time, only to pop up with a solution or problem that completely throws the whole change proposition. Although by their very nature these people are difficult to spot, one ruse is to talk to people in the organization to find out what problems beset earlier change initiatives. It might well be that one person's name starts to crop up.

• Ace: In working with the ace in the pack you will be dealing with the person that has the true power to agree and effect a decision. Like an ace up the sleeve, you might need to pull this person out when facing real problems, when blockages occur at a certain layer in the organization or funds start to run dry part-way through a training session, for example. However, the danger may be in exposing the person too soon in a conflict and effectively giving the game away.

It is a rare and privileged person that has the right and ability to take one single all-embracing decision and see it completed in full. People have to lobby, cajole, bribe and influence others to initiate and complete a decision. Presidents, prime ministers, CEOs, dentists and doctors all have paymasters who can influence the decisions they take. You must take the time to consider any organization critically and really understand who hold the reigns of power before signing a contract. Failure to do this can result in wasted time and resources being expended on a project that has little chance of being delivered.