2 February 2026
Mapping informal influence before you restructure
Boxes are cheap to redraw. Relationships are not. A field map is a way of seeing who already routes work so the new chart does not accidentally cut the only path that functions.
Start with a boring question: “When this breaks at 6 a.m., who do you actually call?” Collect twenty answers without recording titles. Cluster the names. You will usually find a handful of people who do not appear on the proposed structure at all.
In a minerals-processing engagement, the unofficial metallurgist on night shift was the person who decided whether a “new” sampling sheet would be used. The restructure had placed her under a superintendent she did not trust. The map made that visible before the announcement, not after a quiet boycott.
How we draw it
We use paper, not software theatre. Lines mean “routes work”, not “likes each other”. We annotate constraints: union roles, ticketed licences, who holds the keys. Week 2 of The Change Field Method is this exercise, taught on the participant’s own live change.
Ethics
A field map can be misused as a hit list. We keep it inside the programme team, we do not present it as a heat map of loyalty, and we destroy copies at handover if the client cannot name a legitimate use. Influence is not the same as obstruction.