What makes a champion of change?
(First published in The Journal of Change Management, November 2000)

by Jonathan Steffen

The word 'champion' is frequently used in the context of change management. 'Champions' are sought to implement change programmes, ideas are 'championed' against rival concepts.

The term dates from the Middle English word 'champiun' and is derived from the Latin 'campus' or field. The OED defines 'champion' as '(1) A fighting man; a stout fighter; (2) One who fights on behalf of another, or of any cause'.

But what makes a champion of change? The most cursory study of mediaeval literature makes clear the scarcity of great champions, and the many sacrifices which the role entails. Anyone planning to do battle in the corporate lists should be fully aware of what the job means before volunteering to break a lance in a strategic cause.

The following is a summary of the change champion’s six key attributes:

1. The first and arguably the most important quality required of a change specialist is the ability to imagine complex organisations in a different form. This conceptual ability is comparatively rare. Companies are extremely complicated organisations, and the job of learning how they work in their existing form – and how we as employees work within them – is as much as most of us actually want to do. Few of us really wish to reshape the organisations in which we work. It is of course the easiest thing in the world to say what is wrong with one’s place of employment, and we all do it from time to time; but to be able to offer practicable alternatives in all their detail is an unusual gift.
2. Almost as important is the ability to conceive the consequences of immaterial phenomena. A thoughtlessly worded message from the management of a company to its workforce can have devastating effects on that workforce’s morale. Conversely, the lack of available channels for the communication of messages from the grass roots of an organisation upwards can give that organisation’s management the impression that the employees are apathetic and uncommitted, when this might actually be far from the case. A talent for seeing ‘the big picture’ is essential in the change manager.
3. A third important skill is that of being able to portray abstract ideas clearly and convincingly. Change touches all aspects of an organisation, from the prices charged in the company canteen to the pension benefits it offers its staff, and a change manager needs to be able to demonstrate the way in which a ‘mere’ change in routine or reporting structures will translate into very palpable differences when put into practice.
4. Allied to this is the importance of diplomatic and persuasive skills. The change management consultant will inevitably spend a great deal of his or her time advising, negotiating and persuading, but the internal change facilitator needs these talents to just the same extent. Indeed, the job of persuasion can be much harder for the internal promoter of change, for he or she is likely to be dealing with colleagues of many years’ standing with whom certain relationships have long been established. Putting a new slant on those relationships can be difficult in the extreme.
5. The fifth key ability required by a change specialist is the ability to act as a catalyst on others. This means not only knowing when to argue passionately in favour of a particular cause; it also means knowing when not to argue, and how to let others argue a point for you. A promoter of change (a term in frequent use) is precisely that: someone who encourages change, not someone who forces it on other people.
6. The final characteristic required of a successful change manager is stamina. For change does not come easily in any organisation. As Dr Johnson said two centuries ago, ‘Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better,’ and any champion of change can expect to cope with a deal of personal and professional frustration before that process bears fruit. If you are a person who gives up easily, or who finds it difficult to make decisions and stick to them, then this kind of role is not for you.

The benefits offered by a professional change role are as varied as the roles available. For natural advocates of radicalism – those who might be described as 'born agents of change'– involvement in a change programme can offer intellectual stretch and the opportunity to develop a wide range of abilities. Taking a holistic view, the change champion gets to grips with every aspect of an organisation, from the psychological to the financial, from its corporate design to its patents department, and this involvement can be highly stimulating.

The downside is that the change manager’s view will never be wholly shared by the others involved in the change process. Thus a change consultant can experience considerable frustration as one proposal after another is rejected by a client as being 'too costly', 'too risky' or simply 'not the sort of thing we've done before', while an internal change facilitator is likely to experience very quickly the pressures of the political system into which he or she is trying to introduce change. A clash with supervisors or a disagreement with colleagues is almost inevitable in such a position, which is why anyone asked to volunteer for such a role within their own company should carefully consider whether they are really cut out for it.

The above article originally appeared as boxed copy accompanying the 'Breaking lances, dying in ditches' article.

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