Engineering Champions

A champion is not someone who agrees with you. Agreement is passive. A champion is someone who advocates for the initiative when you are not in the room — who hears a colleague express a concern and says "I had that concern too, here is what changed my mind." That is different. That is behavioral change that propagates.

Most organizations identify champions by finding people who are already enthusiastic. That is the wrong selection criterion. Enthusiasm is a starting point. The question is whether the person has credibility with the skeptics — because the Early Adopters do not need a champion. The Pragmatic Adopters and the Compliance Adopters do.

1. 1. Select for Credibility, Not Enthusiasm The best champion is someone who was skeptical, used the tool, and changed their mind. A convert is more credible than a true believer. Identify the people who the skeptics trust, and invest in converting them first.
2. 2. Give Champions Something Specific to Say Champions without a story are just people who like the tool. Give them a narrative: "I was worried about X. Here is what actually happened. Here is the specific result I saw." A specific story converts skeptics. A general endorsement does not.
3. 3. Give Champions Visibility Champions who advocate privately are valuable but limited. Champions who share results in team meetings, in Slack, in company all-hands — those are the advocates who move the adoption curve. Create legitimate visibility opportunities: case study features, team demo slots, cross-functional briefings.
4. 4. Protect Champions from Blowback In high-skeptic environments, visible champions attract criticism from blockers. Quiet blowback — exclusion from informal networks, skeptical comments in team settings — can silence a champion faster than any formal opposition. Monitor champion wellbeing and make sure the Executive Sponsor is visible in supporting them.