Best ways of recruiting champions within your organization. Any success stories?

[CG-1717]

We are planning on putting together a O365 Champions Program (mostly to increase adoption after deployment). Looking for tactical ideas on what to do to recruit champions. I know the "Type" of people we are supposed to look for (enthusiastic, like technology, etc etc) but how do we know who is that?. 

One "data source" we are planning to use is the user adoption dashboard to identify the most "active" users but what are other ways?. What has been effective in your organization?. 

What about "Pulling people in" vs "Let people volunteer"? 

Any creative ideas on how to "find" these users?

Thanks in advance!

Cristina

[#2]

Hi!

Would recommend seeking out Karuana Gatimu’s course Microsoft Service Adoption Specialist on EDX. This is a free course (pay to get certificate) and from what I remember there is a whole module on this. It’s jammed packed with great strategies for a successful rollout and user adoption

Hope that helps! Let me know what you think of it.

Best, Chris

[#3]

@ChrisHoardMVP Thanks for the tip. I looked into it... there is one starting June 30th I believe and I registered for it.  Hopefully I can get some ideas in here before so I can discuss with my team next week 😉 

Thanks!

Cristina

[#4]

Glad I could help!

Best, Chris

[#5]

@CG-1717  Rather then active users I would look for the ones that are the most experimental.  I find that people interested in addons and how they can increase productivity are a far better brand to seek out.

[#6]

@CG-1717 

Hi christina

it's always a great way to ask the people for help 🙂 so, in my case i would ask the people if they like to be a champion. just send a forms link and they can take the choice. i would ask in the forms the following points:

1. are you interested in new technology?

2. do you like to teach other people?

3. would you like to help push the new way of work?

and so on

with that way you collect only the people they like the work this new way, and everyone can take his own choice...

[#7]

@CG-1717 

Hi Cristina
Besides all the good suggestions I would also make sure that your (top)management supports this idea and gives the champions time accordingly.
If this championship role is on top of all previous activities it will be difficult to work.
The champions must be interested and should be given time and resources accordingly.
Have fun building it up...
Greetings
Pascal

[#8]

@CG-1717Look for the people in the different areas of the organization you are targeting who are the "go to" people when someone in that group has a problem and needs help. There are always people in organizations who seem to have the pulse on things, know where to send you to get the answers you need, or seem like they know how to do everything that everyone in their team does. Those people are your champions. You need to identify them, talk to them, and show them how O365 will not only benefit them, but also their network of employees. They will be the ones who will encourage others to use the tools that are available. They will also be the ones to help you understand what features will be the right ones to use to show different groups what they will get out of using this new system. Whether they like technology or new systems or not, they will be all about helping everyone else be successful and therefore will be some of your greatest champions.

[#9]

Hi @CG-1717 ,

Microsoft has some excellent resources that directly address putting together a champions program, including videos, PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, etc. You can quickly access them here: https://Office365TrainingPortal.com/User-Adoption/

I hope that helps!

Graham

[#10]

@CG-1717 

Hi, 

at the moment I am using this strategy:

1. Volunteers recruited from a public Team in Teams and by communication (news, intranet & mores)

2. Engage Vip users that could promote the Champions program

3. Find users in different Business Unit with passion for technology that will like to join to the program: all this with the direct support of BU managers\directors