Real cultural change is shaped by the behaviours of small groups of influential individuals from all levels across the organisation. These well connected individuals are creating a grassroots social movement that makes our values and behaviours recognisable, visible and a normal part of our everyday conversations in the health service. These highly-influential and highly-connected people are the driving force behind this organisational change. We call them our Champions.  As leaders of this social movement, our Champions are spreading the behaviours that underpin Values in Action amongst their colleagues. They are also looking for people to join in the movement and to be a part of creating this change; and you can be a part of it too. 

The Champions Role

The role of a Values in Action Champion is to engage with colleagues, on a peer to peer basis. This will happen both in conversations and actions to help spread the behaviours to affect a cultural change in the health service.  Champions will be trained in the principles of Viral ChangeTM, which was developed by Dr Leandro Herrero as a means of mobilising people within the organisation to create large scale behavioural and cultural change.

It works as a synchronised combination of:

 A set of non-negotiable behaviours;

 Peer-to-peer engagement by Champions with their colleagues;

 Activity between colleagues in the informal organisation, that is in the day-today interactions people have, not in special meetings or committees;

 The sharing of stories about the behaviours plays a key role in spreading the behaviours;

 The supporting role that leaders at all levels play.

The Champions’ community is the real, grass-roots engine for change. Champions will become intimately involved with the ‘non-negotiable behaviours’, bringing them to life in the daily life of an organisation, and how this shapes a culture across peer to peer networks in the organisation.

Champions endorse the 9 behaviours personally and are visible and vocal champions of the benefits that practicing the behaviours will bring. They do this in many different ways but, above all, through conversations with their peers and colleagues. Champions are activists who are committed to spreading the 9 behaviours and turning conversations into real actions to bring the behaviours to life across the health services.

Champions will also recruit others to the Values in Action way so that over time there will be a critical mass of people engaged and the behaviours will flow naturally throughout our organisation.

In summary, champions are advocates, activists, communicators, educators, storytellers and multipliers.

Read about The Behaviours