Cultural Mapping: How to Build Trust and Influence In Your Organization
Dr. Ben Johnson (Bismarck Public Schools) and Bobby Dodd (May River High School)
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Most leaders have a vision, a plan, and the authority to move it forward, but real momentum shows up when you understand how culture is being shaped through trust and influence behind the scenes.
Host Matt Kirchner sits down with Dr. Ben Johnson, Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Schools at Bismarck Public Schools, and Bobby Dodd, Assistant Principal at May River High School, co-authors of Intentional Influence. They break down how influence really spreads inside an organization, in schools, in business, and in industry, and why the people with the most impact are often not the ones with the biggest titles.
At the center of the conversation is their cultural mapping framework—making the invisible influence network visible. You’ll hear how to identify formal and informal influencers, classify commitment on a five-point scale, and invest your time where it will actually shift the culture instead of just managing noise.
In this episode:
- How to move a team from compliance to commitment—without pressure, politics, or performative buy-in
- Why “trust is the currency of culture,” and how to build it in everyday leadership moments
- The cultural mapping basics: formal vs. informal leaders, a five-point commitment scale, and understanding how influence flows throughout your organization
- The difference between positional power and personal power, and why titles can create action without creating true alignment
- “Energy vampires” and the “pinging effect”: how attitudes spread through a team, and how strong leaders respond in a way that protects momentum
3 Big Takeaways from this Episode:
1. Lasting change is a culture outcome, not a plan outcome. Compliance can produce short-term execution, but commitment is what sustains new behaviors when nobody is watching. The work is to build alignment and trust so people internalize the “why” and carry the standard forward.
2. Cultural mapping helps you lead the real organization, not just the org chart. Influence runs through informal networks of credibility and relationships, and the highest-impact people often do not have the biggest titles. When you identify formal and informal influencers and where people sit on a commitment scale, you can invest your time where it will actually shift the culture.
3. Influence spreads fast, so leaders have to manage energy and momentum intentionally. “Energy vampires” and the “pinging effect” are real, and unchecked negativity multiplies through the network. The goal is not to label people, but to understand what’s driving resistance, address it directly, and redirect influence toward the commitments the organization is trying to build.
Resources in this Episode:
Get the book Intentional Influence: Harnessing Cultural Mapping to Build Commitment
Connect with Ben & Bobby for more great leadership content:
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