Your Best Change Champions Aren't Loudspeakers. They're Sensors.

With the FIFA World Cup fresh in our minds and the rugby season kicking off again, I've been thinking about something I notice in sport.

The players who make the biggest difference aren't always the ones scoring the goals or crossing the try line. Some of the most valuable players are the ones who seem to know what's happening before everyone else does - they read the game.

They see the gap opening before anyone else. They spot a player out of position. They sense momentum shifting and adjust before the opposition has even realised what is happening. And I think we've been asking our Change Champions to play the wrong position.

The loudspeaker problem

For years, we've recruited champions, brought them together for monthly meetings, shared the latest project update and then asked them to take the messages back to their teams.

In effect, we've turned them into loudspeakers.

Their job becomes repeating messages, reinforcing key dates, encouraging people to complete training and reminding everyone about go-live.

Now, don't get me wrong, communication matters. Of course it does. But if that's all we're asking our champions to do, I think we're missing the biggest opportunity they offer.

The best Change Champions aren't loudspeakers. They're sensors.

Champions are the people closest to the action

• They hear the conversations in the lunchroom, on Teams calls and while grabbing a coffee.
• They know when people are confused.
• They know when a process doesn't quite make sense. They hear the rumour before it becomes organisational folklore.
• They know which leader is quietly embracing the change and which team is smiling politely while planning to continue doing things the old way. In many ways, they're reading the game, and that is incredibly valuable.

Because once a rumour reaches the project team, it has often been circulating for weeks. Once resistance becomes visible in a steering committee, it is usually well established. Once adoption metrics start falling, the opportunity to intervene early has often passed.

Your champions often know all this long before your project dashboard or governance structure does.

Ask better questions

So perhaps we've been asking the wrong question.

Instead of asking:

What messages do we need our champions to communicate this month?

Maybe we should be asking:

What are our champions seeing that we can't?

That changes everything. Suddenly, champion meetings become less about project updates and more about listening.

What questions are people asking? What's confusing? Where are people finding workarounds already? Which parts of the solution are people genuinely excited about? Where are leaders unintentionally sending mixed messages? What is making adoption harder than it needs to be?

These aren't communications questions. They're adoption questions.

From communication champions to adoption coaches

This is another shift I think we're seeing.

For a long time, Change Champions were largely communication champions. Today, I think they're becoming adoption coaches.

The best champions aren't simply passing on information. They're helping colleagues make sense of change. They're demonstrating new ways of working, building confidence, answering questions, sharing practical tips and helping people navigate uncertainty.

They don't just tell people what is changing. They help people succeed in the new environment. That's a very different role.

Choose influence over enthusiasm

It also changes who we recruit.

Rather than asking managers to nominate the most enthusiastic person on the team, perhaps we should look for the people everyone naturally turns to when they need advice.

Think about your own workplace:

• Who do people naturally gravitate towards in the lunchroom?
• When someone speaks up in a meeting, who do others stop and listen to?
• Who gets asked, "What do you think?" before a decision is made?

Those are often your informal leaders.

They're the trusted colleague. The experienced operator. The person who quietly influences without needing the title. They may not sit at the top of the organisation chart, but they often sit right at the centre of the organisation's influence network. They're the people already reading the game every single day.

Like any good sporting team, projects don't succeed because one person has all the answers. They succeed because information flows quickly, people adapt, and small adjustments are made before little issues become big ones. That's exactly where a well-supported champion network adds value.

Set your champions up to succeed

If we're asking our Change Champions to play a bigger role in adoption, then we also need to invest in them differently.

Too often, we recruit champions, invite them to a monthly meeting and expect them to somehow influence their peers without giving them the tools, confidence or support to do so. 

Instead, think about how you can build their capability

Invest in developing their change leadership skills. Help them understand not just what is changing, but why people react the way they do, how to have meaningful conversations, how to coach colleagues through uncertainty and how to recognise the early signs that adoption is starting to drift.

Give them early access to new systems or processes so they can build confidence before everyone else. Invite them to demonstrations and pilot sessions. Create opportunities for them to spend time with sponsors and senior leaders so they understand the intent behind the change and can ask the questions their teams are likely to ask.

Don't underestimate the power of recognition. When someone is investing their time and credibility to help a project succeed, acknowledge it. Celebrate their contribution publicly. Thank them in team meetings. Recognise them at project milestones.

For larger strategic transformation programs, I'd even consider making the champion role part of their performance objectives. That sends a powerful message that helping others through change is valued by the organisation, not simply an extra task squeezed in around the day job.

The best champion networks don't happen by accident. They're built, supported and recognised like any other critical capability.

The real value of a champion network

A good champion network is not valuable because it broadcasts messages more efficiently.

It is valuable because it helps the organisation see itself more clearly.

Perhaps it's time we stopped measuring our champions by how many updates they shared and started measuring them by the insights they brought back. Because the future of Change Champions may not be about creating better communicators. It might just be about building the best sensing network in the organisation.

So next time you're briefing your Change Champions, before you ask them what they're going to tell the business, ask them one question instead:

What are you seeing that we aren't?

You might be surprised by what you hear. Because perhaps the most valuable thing your Change Champions will ever tell you isn't what they said to the business.

It's what they heard from the business.