Behavioural Change Toolkit · Plan

Champion Network Playbook

The peer layer between “leadership says” and “I do”. Most programmes invest in leadership comms and central training and skip this entirely — which is where the influence actually lives.

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Who to pick

Look for: people others already go to for help · respected for competence not seniority · already frustrated with the current way · socially connected across teams · a bit sceptical (the converted sceptic is your most credible advocate).

Avoid: volunteers with spare capacity (usually a signal) · the manager’s nominee where the manager just wants them out of the way · people who are enthusiastic about everything · anyone universally regarded as a company mouthpiece.

Find them with the two-question sociogram in Diffusion of Innovations: “Who do you ask when you’re not sure how to do something here?” and “Whose opinion on this would you actually take seriously?”

Coverage, not quantity. One per team or shift beats twenty in head office. A night shift with no champion has no champion.

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The ask — be specific

Vague asks get vague effort. Use this:

“I’d like you to be a champion for [change]. Concretely that means:

• Being one of the first to use it, so you can speak from experience
• Being the person on your team people ask, so they don’t have to raise a ticket
• Telling me what’s not working — including things I won’t want to hear

It’s about [2 hours a week for 8 weeks]. You’ll get [early access / direct line to me / your name on what changes / it goes in your development record].

I’m asking you because [specific, true reason].”

⚠️ Get their manager’s agreement to the time, in advance and in writing. A champion whose day job doesn’t shrink will quietly stop, and you’ll wrongly conclude they weren’t committed.

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What champions are for

✅ Yes	❌ No
Being the visible early user	Being unpaid trainers for a syllabus they didn’t write
Answering peer questions informally	Policing compliance
Feeding back what’s broken	Defending decisions they had no part in
Testing changes before wider release	Reporting on colleagues
Being named in what changed	Being the sponsor’s mouthpiece

⚠️ Never ask a champion to police. The moment they become enforcement, they lose the peer status that made them useful — and they can’t get it back.

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The rhythm

When	What	Length
Kick-off	Why, what, and the ask. Together, in a room if possible.	90 min
Weekly (first 6 wks)	“What’s broken?” call. You listen; you don’t update.	30 min
Fortnightly after	Same	30 min
Monthly	Publish what changed because of them	—

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Keeping them

Champion networks decay in about six weeks unless actively fed. The four things that keep them:

1. Visible influence. Publish the list of changes made because a champion raised it, with names. Nothing else comes close for retention — it proves the role is real.
2. Information first. They hear things before their peers. Cheap and highly valued.
3. Access. A direct line to you and, occasionally, to the sponsor. A sponsor spending 30 minutes with the champion network is one of the highest-value uses of their time.
4. Recognition their manager sees. A note to their manager is worth more than a certificate.

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Tracking

Name	Team / shift	Recruited	Manager agreed time	Active?	Last contact	What they’ve raised

Coverage check: any team, site or shift with no champion? ___________

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Winding down

Champion networks should end deliberately, not fade. At around day 90:

• Publish what the network changed, in full
• Thank them specifically and in writing to their managers
• Ask who wants to stay involved as the behaviour moves into business as usual
• Name the ongoing owner in the line. If nobody owns it after the network stands down, drift starts immediately — see Drift Check — 30 60 90.

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