Here are the slides from part one of our three part webinar series on 'Engagement - not just communication'

1. CoP Webinar - 13 February 2018
Engagement – not just communication: Engagement with
Champions
Presented by:
Vicky Emery, General Manager and Joanne Rinaldi, Director – Service Delivery

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Agenda
• The purpose of a Change Champions Network
• Key tasks
• Objectives
• Benefits of being a Champion
• Selection criteria
• Roles
• Overall function

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Prosci® Best Practices Report - Findings
Change agent network
49% of Participants in the 2017 study indicated that they leveraged
formal change agent networks to support change implementation in
the organizations (Figure 12.1), up from 39% in the 2015 study.
Figure 12.1 – Leveraged a change agent network

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Why have a Change Champions Network?
Forming a network of known, respected employees who are enabled
to act as “Change Champions” helps maintain engagement and
adoption for projects, locally. This increases change readiness and
provides for faster adoption.

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Objectives of the Change Champions Network
• Increase adoption and utilisation for
all projects by all impacted business
units across the organisation
• Help impacted employees
understand the changes required to
work practices and processes are
understood and accepted by
employees in order to maximise
transition to BAU through regular
pulse checks and feedback
• Report back to the project/change team any risks that are
gathered so it can be addressed effectively through sponsorship,
leadership, communications, training and required user support

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What do Change Champions do?
The Change Champions will act as conduits between the project and
change teams, their local Sponsor and the organisation as a whole
• Use operational influence to directly prepare colleagues for change
through tailored communication, local examples and application
• Act as a ‘on the ground’ member of the transition team, constantly
checking the solution and the way it is implemented is ‘fit for purpose’
and locally relevant
• Provide immediate feedback about the solution and it’s adoption
• Boost ownership

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What is in it for the Change Champion?
• Change Leadership skills development and potential career opportunities
• Opportunity to be part of a team that achieves change benefits for the
organisation
• Individual recognition of their effort, experience, ability, knowledge and skills to
improve chance of success. Representing their team, their clients and operational
area or speciality
• Opportunity to be an early adopter of the change
• They will be the first point contact and part of the critical two-way loop for
consultation and feedback to ensure the success of project adoption and overall
engagement
• A sense of acting as ‘gatekeeper’, sense of control or to be heard
• Knowledge sharing to improve quality
• In some organisations it is an ‘acting up’ role with some remuneration or grading

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What is in it for the business?
• Extended resources
• Use resources efficiently
• Enhanced and deeper cascade of communication
• Align consistent objectives
• Increase knowledge
• Build credibility of the project or change
• Boost ownership of the solution

9. Criteria for selecting members of a change agent /
champion network

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What to look for when selecting Change
Champions
1. Willingness to participate in and to promote change through the change
champion network was a common theme.
2. Credibility - Members of a change agent network should be credible,
respected and influential within the organisation.
3. Knowledgeable - Participants reported
that change was complex enough to
require a leader familiar with the inner
workings of the organisation.
4. Nominated - Participants reported
that they often did not know who in
the organisation met their criteria to
become members of a change
champion network.

11. Roles

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4 Primary Roles of Change Champions
Communication
Liaison
Leadership
Training and Support
Managing
the change
locally
• disseminate communications to their respective departments, sites or regions
• share information about the change project with a greater audience and
• provide various forms of feedback to the change project team, such as employee concerns.
Various leadership roles for the
change agent network include:
• acting as the change leader for
their department or region
• coordinating regular meetings
and leading events
• acting as a role model for
change in terms of adoption
and use
• promoting change internally by
acting as change champions
• selling the change
Identified as the most important role for the change champion network and include:
• guiding others through the change
• training others and providing support for implementing change
• piloting training programs and techniques
• coaching other change leaders or supervisors
• managing change from the business side and contributing to strategies appropriate for the organisation
• Assisting the change
management team with
managing change locally
• Conducting impact and change
readiness assessments
• identifying and managing
resistance
• tracking and reinforcing
adoption
• Respondents reported that
members of the change
champion network were held
“accountable for adoption
within their organisation.”

13. Top 5 Tips for Building an Engaged Change Champion
network

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Tip 1
Sponsorship
• Who is the ‘champion’ of the champions?
• Who is the Sponsor of this approach?
• Can you link it to a key initiative to ‘pilot’ the approach to a smaller
group?
• Who can answer the questions in Tip 2?

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Tip 2
Be ready for questions like….
• Who is paying for this?
• How much time will be needed?
• How does this work fit with my day-to-day work?
• How will I know what to do?
• What decisions can I make/input can I have about the change?

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Tip 3
Build ability and invest in maintaining it (tools, time, training,
coaching skills)
• Provide a training plan to make sure Change Champions are enabled
to do their job well – competency is a big driver of engagement
• This is an investment for the mid-long term so use it wisely
• Agree support mechanisms like clearing time for the Change
Champion to attend project meetings etc.
• Include their local Sponsor beyond the nomination process to make
sure the Change Champion is Sponsored into the role well
• Agree feedback loops
• Clear a space in Project team meetings for feedback from the
Change Champions

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Tip 4
Be clear on who is responsible for what performance – monitor,
reinforce and track local adoption
• Who will be tracking their performance as Change Champion and
the role we have contracted them to play? Change team/project
team?
• Set up clear check-ins with the Change Champion and their
Leader/Sponsor
• Agree the best measure of local adoption and readiness
• Make reporting easy and to the point

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Tip 5
Be clear that it is not ‘instead’ of Sponsorship
• The Sponsor is still the Sponsor for the impacted group – the
Change Champion is an advocate or influencer
• Watch for signs of overload as the Change Champion is stepping into
Sponsor territory
• Be prepared to coach the Change Champion to navigate
• Focus is on effective partnership between the Sponsor and Change
Champion for their people are ready, willing and able for the change

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