The basics of championing projects and technologies are:

knowing what you want to champion

knowing why you want to champion it

talking about it with colleagues in your networks, and

advocating commitment to it at key decision points.

Whenever you are committed to getting a new technology or approach adopted.

The formality or informality with which we "champion" can vary greatly. If we are interested in a new approach and think its valuable, we are likely to speak up about it in all the forums where it is relevant where we have the opportunity to. But it is possible to be much more focused than this. One can think and work like an 'advocate' on the inside of an organisation.

What degree of formality makes sense is a matter for practical judgment. Often, it makes sense simply to do what we feel comfortable with. However there are occasions where this is unwise; for example:

if we are personally strongly inclined to advocate, but find ourselves not being influential, then it is likely to make sense to shift our emphasis to a more informal approach and listen a lot more (both to others and ourselves);
if we personally prefer a more informal style, but some critical organisational decisions are approaching, it may well make sense to approach the matter quite formally: thinking carefully into who needs to understand our concerns, by when, and how they can be supported, enabled or empowered to articulate those concerns themselves.

Enhancing your practice

Thinking in to how to champion

Fundamentals	Ways of developing the practice
Knowing what you want to champion	Researching what's involved so you become an expert in the new approach, e.g. using this site (directory, search) as a starting point
Knowing why you want to champion it	Developing your understanding of why this approach makes sense by, for example, using systems analysis to test its significance at different spatial scales locating in the context of basic catchment dynamics and stakeholders' interests via a catchment audit locating it within an ecosystem management strategy showing its legitimacy in terms of existing plans or legislation
Talking about it with colleagues in your networks	Thinking into how to approach colleagues in your networks, each of whom are (and represent) stakeholders in your area by: stakeholder analysis, and in particular exploring their positions and the interests that underly them. Listening to them well.
Advocating commitment to it at key decision points	Recognising key decision points where specific proposals can be advocated for, eg writing catchment, stormwater or estuary management plans (see Existing Plans for examples of what's possible) negotiating Council management plans (see examples) key land use planning instruments (e.g. LEPs, DCPs, s94 Plans) developing drainage strategies Developing proposals in enough detail to save your colleagues work. Using principled negotiation so you negotiate fairly as a matter of course.

Deeper listening

Listening to others

Evolving your sense of what should be championed and why it should be championed is part and parcel of championing a project or technology.

If the people you are talking to don't feel listened to, it is much less likely that they will support your project or approach. And in the process of talking about it, you will almost always discover ways to improve what you are advocating for. Things to listen for include:

technical improvements
ways to achieve a wider range of objectives (e.g. to do capacity building or community development through an engineering project)
specific ways to tailor a project so it works from others' perspectives.

See Listening to others for more detail on this.

Listening to yourself

Listening deeply to other people, and thinking into how to champion a project or a technology, both involve a kind of 'listening to yourself': listening to your intuitions, inklings, leanings, uneases - to make the most of your ability to 'feel' or 'read' or 'sense' what is going on in a situation.

These skills are not ones that are widely taught, but they can be learnt. See Listening to ourselves for an introduction to this.

Developing a 'championing strategy'

In complex situations it may make sense to orient yourself by thinking through how you will influence your organisation, and/or the network of organisations

identifying decision-makers;
identifying influencers;
identifying their own pathways of influence (who they can influence directly, who indirectly, how);
designing projects in ways that they seek to accommodate the interests of diverse stakeholders (e.g. they need to work technically, from a management perspective, and politically); and
developing principled negotiation approaches to address the needs of key decision-makers and influencers both with whom one is working both directly and indirectly (e.g. as an adviser to a line manager who will be negotiating with a Director, General Manager or Councilors)

Attempting to force people to adopt new technologies or approaches that they don't want to adopt usually fails.

Most of us don't have positions in our organisations from which we could even contemplate this. For those of us who do, the level of effort is usually high. Most people forced to work in ways that they judge as wrong or inefficient or unpleasant stay on the look out for opportunities to work in ways that make sense to them. Forcing people to do things has high opportunity costs (we get to do a lot less than if we were working with people who were cooperating willingly).

So an approach to catalysing change that relies on controlling the behaviour of unwilling people is a weak one. It has high opportunity costs and risks. Persuasion - helping people to see that adopting a new approach makes sense from their perspective - so that they work with you, willingly, makes much more sense.

Urban Water Management Marketing Video
This video tells some of Manly, Penrith and Albury Councils' experience of urban water management. It draws out:
1. water management problems in their local areas
2. what they did
3. the benefits their communities experienced
4. their local communities' responses to their Council's activities, and
5. how each Council funded what they did.
The video is designed for Council staff to show to Councillors and senior managers to show that it is beneficial, and feasible financially and politically, to approach urban water management in new ways. The video is available from LHCCREMS, and has been provided to all Councils in NSW.

Selling stormwater management (US journal article)
"Public sector professionals committed to establishing or sustaining a stormwater utility can't afford to focus solely on technical and engineering aspects, several seasoned experts insist. There's no substitute for the private sector staple known as salesmanship."

Sustainability for the Planet: A Marketing Perspective
"As a practitioner of consumer packaged goods marketing, I spent long hours developing and executing detailed marketing plans [...]. As a researcher in marketing, I have studied how marketing vehicles such as advertising can create, influence and change target audience attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions. In a nutshell, marketing works. That's why corporations use it. A more interesting question is, how can scientists use it too?"