[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hi, everyone. Today we'll take a look at some of the best practices for developing a Champions Network within your organization. I'm your host, Bill Coffin, and this is the Ethicast.
Champions Networks are a proven way to broaden the reach of ethics and compliance programs and and embed compliance into an organization's culture. Also known as liaisons or ambassadors, Champions are a cost effective way to cascade training and communications throughout your company.
These programs place ethics and compliance champions within business functions or geographic locations to drive messaging around specific compliance topics and in many cases, to act as an employee point of contact.
But for all of the awareness around Champions Networks, their best practices can be a little bit more difficult to come by.
Joining us this episode to talk about Champions Networks is Matt Silverman, founder and CEO of the Blueprint Organization, a consulting firm that provides guidance and resources to companies and communities looking to build Champions Networks. Matt is a global trade and compliance attorney with experience advising Fortune 500 companies in the aerospace, energy, defense technology, telecommunications and heavy machinery industries. A prolific writer and public speaker, he is the author of the Champions Network, a blueprint to expand your influence and spread big ideas in any organization. Matt, welcome to the program.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: Thank you for having me. Bill, thank you for the kind introduction. Very happy to speak with you.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: Today, ENC leaders often talk about creating Champions Networks to advance cultures of ethics and integrity. In your book, you give some great examples from National Grid, MHP and Teradata on what a good ENC focused Champions Network might look like.
Given how much ENC focuses on changing culture as a core part of what it does, do you see any special challenges or opportunities in how ethics and compliance leaders build their own champions and networks?
[00:02:02] Speaker B: Yeah, thank you for the question and for the nice plug for my book. So, you know, as I was writing the book a couple years ago, I really did want to use some actual examples, right? Some real world examples. So the examples you mentioned, I think are great ways that different companies have helped to build culture. We, we talk a lot in the ethics and compliance world about building a culture, a culture of integrity, a culture of compliance, a culture of ethics. And sometimes it can be a little overused in terms of what does that really mean? Right. Culture to me is just the aggregate of individuals, beliefs and actions, et cetera. And I think that the nice thing about a Champions Network is that it does really offer the opportunity to, to truly build a culture. And by that I mean, you know, we often look at tone from the top, right? If we just have the right tone from the top in our leadership in our organization, it'll flow down through the entire organization. That will change culture. And while tone from the top, good, good tone is really important, and bad tone can, can cripple an organization in terms of their compliance culture, tone in and of itself, I don't think really creates a culture of compliance and ethics. It takes more than that in terms of how do you implement it, how do you influence people in the organization to actually take on that tone and act on it? We talk a lot about policies and procedures, right? If we have the right policies, the right procedures, but we know that just having those policies in place, those mission statements, et cetera, those in and of themselves don't create culture. You have to have something else to implement it, ways to feed it into the organization to influence others, to understand.
These are our mission statements. This is the culture we're trying to build. So when you talk about tone and you talk about policies and procedures, and even when you talk about just having laws and regulations in certain industries that will help you, ideally to maintain a culture of compliance, a culture of ethics, and you need something else. You need a tool, a way to influence others. And to me, champions, networks, ambassador programs, like you said, you can call them a lot of different things. It's one tool.
I don't know if it's the best way, but I think it's a really good way to actually implement the tone. The policies, the procedures, even the external laws and regulations within your organization.
Influence the most people in the shortest amount of time, but do it the most effectively.
Tone from the top is great, but what studies have found, and there's too many to talk about today, but there's a lot in my book, psychological studies, sociological studies have found that people are really influenced not necessarily by their leadership or what they read in a policy, if they even read it, they're most influenced by the actions of those around them, right? People that they know and trust, whether it's in their family, their friends, or in this case, their colleagues and coworkers, people they see and know and work with every day in their departments and business units. So I think ideally the purpose of a champions network is so that people in an organization can. Can see from their champions, right? People who are advocates for policy, for an initiative, for a project, people can see what are those people around me doing? What's valued by the people I know and trust and who I work with day to day, what's valued by those champions, and then allow those champions really to influence and spread the tone. So sometimes people talk about Tone from the bottom, tone from the middle, however you want to say it. It's the idea that you're taking a tone, you're taking the policies, you're taking the mission statements, and you're using the Champions Network model to really influence people, like I said, in a more effective way, but also in a relatively quick way.
That to me is kind of the overall function of what a Champions Network does. I talk a little bit more in terms of the psychology of it in the book, but that to me is what is unique about the Champions Network model. It operates a little differently than many other ways traditionally than we talk about in terms of building culture within an organization.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: One of the first things you point out in the blueprint section of your book is how crucial it is to get buy in and support from senior leadership prior to actually implementing a Champions Network.
Why might a team rush into launching a Champions Network without top level buy in? And how can ENC teams avoid giving in to the temptation to, to run before they can walk?
[00:06:55] Speaker B: So, yeah, another great question and let me give you maybe a real world example from my own life to illustrate this a little bit. So I was hired into an organization a number of years ago.
I won't mention the name of the organization, but a very large, actually European based company, but very global, very, very large, 30,000 plus employees. And, and I was hired in at the time in part because I had experience building Champions Networks. And the company I was coming into was looking to build specifically a trade compliance Champions Network, which is my subject matter expertise. So I'm hired into the role. I'm told that internal audit had basically done an assessment and the recommendation was to help fix a number of different corrective actions and gaps. We need a Champions Network, an ambassadors program. So I'm very excited. I've done this before. I'm raring to go. And I immediately start to recruit my champions. I immediately start to put together PowerPoint presentations and job requisitions and literally posters and emails and start to reach out to people in HR and sales and engineering and even groups like tax and manufacturing, all the different areas that touch on trade compliance.
And what I found, not immediately, but pretty soon after, after that effort was I started to get phone calls and emails, mostly from managers and even upper level management department heads, saying what? What are you doing? Why are you taking away time from my direct reports? You know, I need them devoted to X, Y and Z full time.
I was never told and I don't understand why now they have to devote even 1% of their day, of their month, of their year to ethics and or compliance, and specifically in this case, trade compliance. And it was really a lesson for me because I'd gotten so ahead of myself because I had been told, well, internal audit has recommended we build a Champions Network. And internal audit was right and our chief compliance officer was right. We desperately needed one, for trade compliance, but no one had been informed. The internal stakeholders, the department heads and managers had not been informed, one, that we were even looking to build a trade compliance network and Champions Network, and two, what was its value and why did their direct reports have to now take on a compliance and ethics role? And even though we say in the compliance and ethics world, everyone owns compliance and it's all of our jobs to be ethical, of course it is. And people know that, but people don't always understand that that sometimes means, and in this case, when it comes to building a Champions Network, it can really mean building in a compliance and ethics component within their actual job day to day.
Maybe it's, you know, in there, you talk to their HR representative and you say, you know, at the end of the year we're going to evaluate people based on these goals or criteria. 5% of it or 1% of it or whatever it is should be their Champions Network role as a compliance and or ethics champion. So it was a learning lesson for me because I got way ahead of myself. And then what I found was it was difficult to backtrack, right? I had to set up a lot of calls, a lot of meetings, a lot of emails to now try to fix the problem I'd already started, which was, now people are starting from a position of, well, you didn't come at me in the first place to even ask me my opinion of it, right? So now I have to do a lot of backtracking. So before you truly launch it, before you truly start to recruit your champions, start kind of at square one, which is finding the right internal stakeholders, the department heads, managers, and talking to them and saying one, just letting you know, we're looking to build a Champions Network, here's the reason we're looking to build it. And maybe there's a Champions Network within the company already that's well perceived. Maybe that Champions Network is not so well perceived. What are your thoughts about how that one functions? What are the good, what are the bad? How can we do a better job as we build this Champions Network to incorporate some of that good and maybe avoid some of that bad? People in general, and this isn't the same for everyone. But in general, even if someone is apprehensive about an idea like building a Champions Network or technology taking direct reports time away from what they do day to day, people are more amenable if they at least feel like, well, at least you're asking for my opinion, right? At least you want to know what I think about how this could function best. At least you want to know who on my team would make for a good champion, as opposed to just trying to reach out to people individually and recruit them. So in the long run, I have found you will won get great input, positive, negative, constructive, that can help you build your Champions Network. And two people are more amenable. People will likely help to support you in building a Champions Network if those stakeholders know ahead of time what's coming down the pipe. And the other advantage sometimes is when you're building a Champions Network, you may need someone of a budget. Now I don't have to tell anyone who's listening to this. It can be tough in the compliance and ethics world sometimes to get big budgets, if budgets at all. You may need a budget for your Champions Network. You may find that if you can get some other internal stakeholders on board, whether they're hr, sales or whoever it is, they've got a budget too. And you may be able to work with them to get a little extra budget to help you do some of the things you want to do down the line, whether it's incentives or training, et cetera. So there's a lot of really good reasons when you're starting out building your Champions Network to make sure to talk to those stakeholders, those leaders, those managers ahead of time, try to get their buy in. Or at the least, even if they don't fully buy in, try to get that constructive input and criticism. It'll help you make a better defined and stronger Champions Network down the road.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: When you lay out the elements of a Champions training program, those all look like the stepping stones for a great career in management. Regardless of activity in a Champions Network, can you talk a bit about how the experience of participating in a Champions Network can lead to advancement elsewhere within the organization or just within one's own career?
[00:13:35] Speaker B: Yeah. So you know, a lot of the times, Champions Networks or being a champion itself, you don't receive any monetary incentive for it. I mean, you may find a way as a Champions Network leader to build in some kind of monetary financial incentive. Maybe you get a little extra financial bonus, maybe there's some kind of internal company rewards or point systems you can use. But in general, the Incentive that a lot of champions receive in being a champion is the opportunity, one, for visibility within the organization. And two, somewhat part of that visibility is the opportunity to really show your potential leadership, managerial skills, or just the ability, right, to influence others and spread ideas, policies, programs, etc. So I always like to emphasize when we're doing recruitment for champions and when we're doing training for champions, that they understand that this is an opportunity not just to help create a better culture, that in and of itself is a great thing to do. And I think a lot of champions may be interested in serving as a champion, as an ambassador, to help create a better culture of compliance and ethics, to make their companies stronger, etc. But many are also looking for the opportunity or may not even realize that there is this opportunity for that visibility. So, you know, when we do Champions Network trainings, I often advise companies, I say, you know, bring in the chief compliance officer, bring in your CEO, bring in your chief operations officer, all a lot of the times champions are at a level in the organization where they may not have much day to day, if any interaction with these folks at a leadership level.
So make sure they have that visibility and then make it very clear by serving as a champion, even if it's only for one year or two years, you're adding something to your cv, to your resume.
If you look for a job elsewhere or hopefully you stay within your company, right, you're able to show this is an opportunity. Even if I wasn't in a manager role, even if I wasn't in a traditional leadership role, I'm an individual contributor. But now when someone asks me, you know, are you ready for that promotion or do you think you're ready for that manager role? What's your leadership experience? You've been in an individual contributor role. Yeah, but I've been a champion where I have interacted day to day or week to week or month to month with leaders and colleagues throughout my business unit, throughout my region, throughout my site, giving them information that they need, working with them to help me understand how these policies, programs, initiatives can help be improved, escalating that all the way up, maybe even to a manager or chief compliance officer level, having those conversations.
So the champions role is in many ways a leadership role and can be framed that way. And by serving as a champion, you really can set yourself up very well down the line for being able to say to a future employer or boss, internally, I'm ready for the next step in my career and here's a year or two worth of experience as a.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: Champion to show that we are entering a time of substantial turbulence across the business world with regulatory, technological, social, and even geopolitical disruptions buffeting organizations everywhere.
As I read your insights on Champions Networks, I got the feeling that during times of great organizational challenge or opportunity, the presence of a Champions network at all, regardless of its function, is a strong indicator of that organization's ability to adapt, evolve, and succeed. What are your thoughts?
[00:17:24] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you're certainly correct about that, right? Turbulent times in many, many instances, a lot of business uncertainties. And even regardless of what's going on externally, even even in relatively calm business waters, there are always companies that are going through changes, right? That are going through layoffs, that are going through acquisitions, that are changing the structure of their organization.
I would say this. A Champions network can be used, can be utilized very well for any types of changes that a company is going through. I mean, one way that I've seen it used very well is when there's an acquisition, right? You have a company, now you're acquiring another company, the culture of that company that you're acquiring may be very, very different.
Or there may be changes in terms of the structure of an organization, who's reporting to who, what departments are switching.
Oftentimes I've seen Champions Networks work very well, not just in a ethics and compliance function, but in terms of an organizational structure and organizational change.
Champions working with new departments, with new companies, with new people coming into an organization. And those champions are on the ground working with those people day to day. Right? As opposed to me or another attorney or compliance professional who may be thousands of miles away sitting in an office somewhere.
And we're trying to help change the culture of the organization. We're trying to get people in a new company to understand how we do things and the right way to do it. And we're trying to do it through sending emails and letting people know these are our policies and mission statements. And here's a video from our CEO talking about tone from the top. That's great. And hopefully those people watch that and understand it. But if you have people on the ground, people who can serve as your. Sometimes they're called change champions, right? People who can serve as those champions on the ground.
Again, influencing people, because they see them every single day. They're their co workers, in some cases their friends, people that they trust and know.
It's a much more effective way. And in terms of other things like geopolitical disruptions, I'll give you a quick example, and one is what we see going on now, and it's my area of expertise, so I draw on it a lot. But what we see going on now in the global trade world, right, and tariffs and, and how are these going to impact the business day to day? I get questions all the time from my current company and in the past about what do these tariffs mean or what do sanctions mean or export controls mean to the business? How do we have to change our supply chain? How do our salespeople have to act in accordance with it? So I can give my expertise and my guidance as, as an attorney or what I can do, and what I often find is, can be incredibly effective, is to find those champions, people who are not necessarily compliance professionals themselves, but people who know the business better than I do, people who know the salespeople and the regions and the supply chain and procurement groups. And I can train those people or talk to those people and then say, here's the advice I'm giving you now. Go forth and talk to those within your regions, within your departments, and let them know the changes that are coming down the pike, how we want to adapt to them, who you can reach out to for questions. A lot of the times the role of a champion is not necessarily to answer a question, but to escalate that question, right? To say, you know, I was at my team meeting and I talked about this new compliance policy or I talked about how these new tariffs are going to have implications for our sales or supply chain or procurement team. And I'm getting a lot of questions now I need to direct them to someone, right? Or I'm getting a lot of questions. We need to try to set up a weekly or a monthly call with our legal and compliance team. Sometimes you don't know those things that are happening on the ground or questions that people have at the local level. And until you have a champion coming to you and saying, these are the issues and this is where we need support. So what I'd say is, and this goes for any kind of compliance or ethics champions network.
Sometimes the best part about it, the most effective way that champions can serve in their role is not just to take information that I'm giving them and spreading it and influencing their colleagues and co workers at the local level.
It's a symbiotic relationship. They are talking to folks at a local level and coming back to me or the head of their champions network and saying, this is what's going on at the local level. This is what you should know about.
And that to me is such an effective way to run a Champions Network where it's a two way street and regardless of the geopolitical or business environment, it's a great way, I think, for Champions Networks to operate and be most effective.
[00:22:34] Speaker A: Well, Matt, this has been a terrific conversation. Thank you so much for joining us today and for sharing your thoughts on Champions Network development.
[00:22:41] Speaker B: Yeah, it's my pleasure. As you can tell, it's certainly a passion of mine. Thank you again for the invitation. And thank you to everyone in your audience for taking the time to listen.
[00:22:50] Speaker A: For additional reports, articles and videos on Champions Networks, visit the Ethisphere resource
[email protected] resources if you'd like to appear as a guest on this program to share a best practice success story or your own proof point around how business integrity builds value, we would love to hear from you. Drop us a
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