After running an Organizational Health Baseline Survey in Entromy, one of the most insightful outputs you’ll receive is a breakdown of key individuals who shape your organization’s internal dynamics. These are presented in three categories: Potential Influencers, Potential Bottlenecks, and Recommended Influencers.
🔍 What are Potential Influencers?
Potential influencers are individuals identified as having the largest spheres of influence within your organization.
These people are nominated by their peers across categories like Strategy, Innovation, Energy, Problem Solving, and more.
The total number of nominations across all these categories is summed to determine their influence score.
The list is ranked in descending order based on total nominations.
👉 This view helps you see who is already recognized as impactful in driving organizational change and progress.
💡 Note: In many organizations, potential influencers are not part of the formal leadership team, but rather one or two layers down - the operational drivers who connect across teams and get things done. Identifying these "hidden champions" is one of Entromy’s strengths.
⚠️ What are Potential Bottlenecks?
While some individuals are highly influential, they may also become bottlenecks -key points in the network whose limited accessibility or high workload can hinder overall efficiency. Their deep knowledge and central role often lead others to rely on them for guidance and decisions, but when they're stretched too thin, delays and communication gaps can create friction in day-to-day work.
Bottlenecks are identified when:
An individual is frequently nominated in the nomination question:
'If I had increased communication with the following individuals, I could perform my job better.'They meet additional threshold criteria based on how many nominations they’ve received in total.
👉 Identifying bottlenecks helps your team target conversations, redistribute decision-making authority, and ultimately improve workflow efficiency.
✅ What are Recommended Influencers?
Recommended influencers are the individuals who, together, can reach and influence the widest part of your organization with the smallest number of people - without being bottlenecks.
How they’re calculated:
Start with all potential influencers and exclude bottlenecks.
Calculate each person's second-level nominations:
Their direct nominations
Plus the nominations of their nominators (1 level up), avoiding double-counting.
Rank all remaining individuals based on this extended influence score.
The top 5 individuals are selected as recommended influencers.
👉 This list is ideal if you're looking to kick off initiatives or cascade communication in a scalable, high-impact way.
🧠 Example: How Second-Level Nominations Work
Alan is directly nominated by: Thomas, Andrew, Joseph, and Kate (4)
Thomas was nominated by: John, Kristin (2)
Andrew by: Sam, Kara (2)
Joseph by: Jan (1)
Kate has no nominations.
➡️ Alan’s second-level nomination total = 9
(4 direct + 2 + 2 + 1)
This ensures we’re not just picking "popular" individuals but those whose networks extend the widest, with minimal overlap.
📎 Where to Find This in Entromy
Navigate to: Insights > Reports > Organization Network Analysis > Top Influencers & Potential Bottlenecks
You'll find three tabs:
Potential – Full list of top influencers by total nominations
Potential Bottlenecks – Key individuals who may be critical yet overloaded
Recommended – The top 5 individuals who offer broad influence and minimal risk