The coolest trick I know for getting Change Champions motivated for launch

I’ve just wrapped up my March Change Tools Masterclass launch, and launches are a super important part of any change. It’s where the rubber hits the road, the magic happens, the stuff goes live, and actually gets into the hands of your people so you can see how they truly use it and love it.

Enter: Change Champions

It’s very common to enlist some help to activate and support launch across the business - and in Change Management, this is usually in the form of “Change Champions”. Change Champions are generally team member-level employees who are nominated by senior leadership to advocate and promote the change with the teams on the ground, especially at launch.

But the problem is - not all Change Champions wanted to be Change Champions! 

If you get people who are nominated, sometimes you end up with a lot of Change Champions who don't actually want to do it. They resist, don't show up, or just don’t do anything - even at the times that matter most (like launch!). They’re disenchanted and disempowered because they never really asked to be given that role and extra discretionary work. Which can even be the case for always-happy-to-help “usual suspect” Change Champions who get nominated for every change - they may get sick of always having to step up while their colleagues coast!

Flip the power

So the alternative to nominating Change Champions is to take more of a Marketing approach and get people to opt themselves in - it puts the decision back in their court. If you can create buzz, make the change sexy and interesting, and showcase that Change Champions will get extra privileges, early access, the inside scoop, and maybe even some exclusive experiences, you can make it really desirable to be a Change Champion. 

For example, with making it sexy you might have messaging around “You’ll be in the know” or “You’ll get the chance to get this before anyone else” or if they like to help other people, it might be “You’ll be the trusted advisor to your team in this change.”

Some examples of exclusive experiences: 

• On one software upgrade, our 20 Change Champions got to have a special hands-on immersion day at Microsoft Head Office and play around with all the sexy new tools before anyone else in the organisation even heard about the new features. 
• Other Change Champions have gotten to be involved in co-design and user testing. 
• Other champions have gotten special briefings or capability and leadership skills training no one else in the organisation got. 
• Other champions get activation resources to step up and lead their teams through the change at launch. 

When you calibrate on inspiration rather than nomination, and make something appealing, you’ll get people who actually want to be there and are excited to help out and go the extra mile above their day job. Then you can open up expressions of interest and see the calibre of champions that self-nominate. Some of them might be people you would have nominated anyway, but you might get a broader interest of opt ins. And of course, if you’re missing a bit of business breadth or diversity or even some prickly stakeholders (always good for nutting out risks and valid feedback!). 

Let’s look at my last launch

If you look at the way that I do my launches in my business, you have to opt in to come along to anything that I do. I don't give access to everybody. You have to put your hand up and say you want to be involved because it’s a filtering process of people who actually want to be there and learn my tips, tricks and secrets.

Then I make the experience really great with value and content, live workshops, extra bonuses and little goodies when you come to one of my masterclasses, webinars or courses. I'm building this group of people who love what I do, who love the experience, and want to share it with other people - and the word of mouth gets others to opt in.

Sadly, my Change Tools Masterclass launch is now all wrapped up - it was truly epic and I loved every minute of being able to share the experience with those who attended. 

So to celebrate and thank everyone who participated, here’s one final little gift from me: a Creative Launch Ideas Guide with 53 tried-and-tested ways to bring your next change launch to life. 

CLICK HERE to download your free Creative Launch Ideas Guide

My March Group Cohort of incredible LSC students have kicked off their 6-week change leadership journey - I’ll let you know when LSC opens back up again to new students. 

In the meantime, keep learning, keep leading, and keep launching incredible change. 

DOWNLOAD your free guide with 53 creative ways to launch change here

All my belief, 

Lata xx