*Harvard Business Review* article (July-August 2013 issue) by Julie Battilana and Tiziana Casciaro, drawing on a study of 68 change initiatives in the UK's National Health Service. Their headline finding is that **network centrality in the informal organisation matters more than formal hierarchical rank** for getting change adopted - middle managers central to the informal network outperformed high-ranking but peripheral leaders. The article is the most likely source for the paraphrase used in the webinar slide that change happens through the middle of the network rather than the top of the hierarchy. > Change happens from the **middle of the network** and no longer from **the top of the hierarchy** ^battilana-casciaro-on-change-via-middle The original article phrases this more cautiously: > "Formal authority may give you the illusion of power, but informal networks always matter, whether you are the boss or a middle manager" and "among the middle and senior managers we studied, high rank did not improve the odds that their changes would be adopted."