Why Building an Ambassador Community is a Game-Changer for Workplace Culture

There is a growing trend of employees speaking out on political, social, environmental and well-being issues within their workplace. This involves employees advocating for changes in company policies, practices, and values to align with their personal beliefs and societal expectations.  At Tribe we are seeing an increased interest from our clients wanting us to help them harness the passion and voices of their employees by creating platforms for open dialogue, involving employees in decision-making processes, and aligning their values with the issues that matter most to their workforce.   

 Scott Hassall, Lead Consultant at Tribe Culture Change, explains why creating an ambassador community not only fosters a sense of inclusion and belonging but also enhances the company's reputation, retains talent and drives meaningful change within the organisation.  

Change Starts from the Top 

Many culture change consultancies talk about ‘change starts from the top’. Whilst there is absolutely the need for senior leaders in the business to create an environment to allow change, the next reasonable question is “what is the best vehicle for change?”. 

Many culture change transformation programmes typically raise awareness around the current climate, clearly communicate the direction of travel and engage with employees on the expected behaviours and what role they have to play in creating a real shift in behaviour and culture. These are all mission critical steps to help clients begin and achieve their desired behavioural changes, something that Tribe break down into three easy steps in Active, Motivate and Cultivate.  

Tribe’s unique three-stage approach lets you ‘Activate’ your culture change programme with all of the resources you need to get to the heart of your existing culture; ‘Motivate’ your workforce with creative and engaging communications and ‘Cultivate’ change for the long term with our continuous improvement programmes. 

 Typical things in these phases may include ‘hearts and minds’ workshops with a variety of interactive tools to help engage employees in a different way compared to the standard internal training they may be familiar with. Included would also likely be a programme of work and communications, enabling the client to keep the drumbeat of change ever present throughout the programme. Tribe are now also creating communities of ambassadors to help lead with change, something that has been a game changer for our clients.  

What is an Ambassador Community? 

We define an Ambassador Community as a group of individuals who act as advocates or champions around health, safety and wellbeing in their organisation and are people that have a passion for being part of changing the organisation for the better. When looking at culture change, one of the important groups of people to tap into when starting any cultural change journey would be the early adopters, people who are passionate about others and want to make the workplace better for all. So it goes without saying that getting all these people together creates a real buzz and shows everyone that there are others in the business with the same levels of passion. 

Here are three great reasons why having an Ambassador Community can benefit your organisation:  

1. Buddying:  One of the things Tribe have done with the ambassador community is buddy ambassadors with senior leaders in the business, something that has seen huge results. Doing this has allowed the ambassador community to spend regular time with a senior leader in the business and provide both parties with a safe space to talk about any concerns, build a strong relationship and also be in a position to help each other drive the behavioural changes at the different levels of the business. For example, a senior leader may check in with their ambassador buddy about how a certain campaign has landed with front line workers or as a pair they may decide to generate some ideas about to engage a certain population of the workforce. Having this relationship can give appreciation for both parties about obstacles at different levels of the organisation and this will also help build trust between the leader and their workforce.
2. Conduit to programme team: Particularly with larger organisations where they may be an internal team that lead the cultural change project, having a community of ambassadors can be crucial. The ambassadors are made up of individuals across the business at all levels and can act as the eyes and ears of the programme team. Having regular check ins with the ambassador community can provide the programme team with so much feedback in terms of what is landing well and identifying any further opportunities for improvement. Ambassadors sit ‘in’ the business so will often get honest unfiltered feedback on initiatives which can be invaluable for programme teams.
3. Personal Development: One of the huge benefits to our clients is that we take the community of ambassadors through a specifically designed development programme. This programme allows ambassadors to be confident in their role and to go out into various areas of the business knowing they have the skills to have meaningful and impactful conversations wherever they go. Furthermore, ambassadors get involved in delivering workshops on behalf of the programme team so ensuring they have the skills and confidence to do this helps ensure what is being delivered is of a consistently high quality.  

Overall ambassadors can provide a conduit to the rest of the business. The benefits of having this community not only benefit the programme team when it comes to feedback, but also benefits the business. It shows collaboration between senior leaders and ambassadors, and also the business capabilities are increased with ambassadors being upskilled as part of their role. 

How to create an Ambassador Community 

Creating a committed pool of individuals ready to be the face of change can be difficult. When working with our clients on initially creating a pool of ambassadors, the first port of call is to be explicitly clear on what the role of an ambassador will involve. It is vitally important to firstly agree with the business if the role of an ambassador will be accommodated in the persons day job or this is a task they have to do on top of their day job. Of course, if someone is given time to fulfil the role of an ambassador, the ask from them can be more than if it becomes something on top of their day job.  

It is also important to clearly identify ‘what is in it for me’ for potential ambassadors. Of course part of this is selling the story of what cultural change can look like for potential ambassadors. It is also a chance to sell some of the additional benefits such as personal development, exposure throughout the business and access to senior leaders to help potential recruits understand what they will stand to gain from volunteering.  

The next step is to advertise throughout the business. This stage is critical to attracting the right type of ambassadors. It is important to have a well thought-through recruitment campaign which clearly outlines the characteristics of a good ambassador along with the commitment required to enable someone to become a great ambassador.  At this point it’s also important to let the prospective ambassadors know ‘what’s in it for them’. Following this recruitment drive typically there would be some interviews to better understand the applicants but also this gives some credence to the role as not everyone who applies may be successful. The interview provides the opportunity for the ambassadors to demonstrate their positive attributes and better understand any cultural programme. They can also ask any questions they may have as well as giving the programme team an opportunity to better understand people’s motives and weed out any people that may just want to be an ambassador for it to look good on their CV. 

How to sustain an Ambassador Community 

 Once you have a community of ambassadors one of the keys to success would be sustaining that community. Here are some of the best ways to engage and sustain an Ambassador Community: 

1. Keep expectations clear and check in with ambassadors. It is of upmost importance that ambassadors are kept up to date with any changes in the project or how it is being delivered. These people need to be kept in the loop because eventually they will be recognised as the local go-to people when it comes to the culture change project. This can be done by scheduling regular drop in sessions where ambassadors can bring any problems they are having and also providing the programme team an opportunity to deliver any key bits of information or updates. 
2. Make your ambassadors visible. It is paramount that ambassadors are visible throughout the business. This of course can be done by getting them to deliver workshops and other activities but also consider using some of them in promotional materials, have a couple of them sit in the project meetings and basically just involve them in as much as possible. This will help the ambassadors be seen and feel that what they are doing is reaching far and wide across the organisation.  
3. Give them the right tools and development. It is important for ambassadors to also get something out of the process and one of the most effective ways of doing this is developing their skills in key areas to help them be great ambassadors. For example, providing ambassadors with coaching skills enables them to feel confident going out and having great conversations throughout the business. Other examples include facilitation skills along with negotiating and influencing skills. We have found ambassadors to have significantly improved confidence after going through a number of development modules, and of course these modules can also help them in their career development too. 
4. Celebrate their success. More often than not many organisations are always very quick to pick up on what goes wrong but not good enough at celebrating the successes they have. It is vital that when ambassadors come up with good ideas or are making a real difference through the conversations they are having, that this is celebrated by both their local teams but also at a project level. Furthermore, Tribe have helped clients create ambassador days where ambassadors across the business come together once or twice a year and have a fun packed day with development, project updates but also celebrate their achievements over the previous six months. These are typically attended by some of the senior leaders and offers them a chance to also acknowledge some of the great work ambassadors do. 

By doing some of these key things we have found the drop-out rate of ambassadors to be far less. Of course, from time to time people may leave the business entirely or change roles within the company and struggle to fulfil their role as an ambassador but having these things in place can reduce the risk of ambassador drop out.  

One of the things that Tribe has done with some of our clients is help them further develop the community of ambassadors by creating Lead Ambassador roles. This is an important role as the community of ambassadors grows so ambassadors have a point of contact before approaching  programme team members. Furthermore, Lead Ambassadors are often invited to more programme type meetings to help feedback some of the things they are hearing from the ambassador community. 

When harnessed in the correct way the power of having an ambassador community is huge. They really do become the gateway for others to get on board with any cultural changes. They end up being recognised by all levels of the organisation for the work they put in to allow others to get behind some of the difficult changes that a cultural change programme can present. When combined with all the other interventions or outputs from a programme of work, a community of ambassadors can offer a very different vehicle to help bleed cultural change into a business.  

Ready to build an Ambassador Community? Contact Tribe to learn how we can help you drive meaningful culture change.