Building ChampionsThe Science Behind Security's Most Powerful People. By Adrian Kwitkowsky.
Building Champions: The Science Behind Security's Most Powerful People, by Adrian Kwitkowsky
Get the book on Amazon

Building Champions. A book by Adrian Kwitkowsky. Out November 10.

A trusted colleague can change what a policy cannot.

Security champions programs run on volunteers, and nobody can be made to volunteer. Building Champions is the behavioral science behind these programs specifically: why people step forward, what keeps them engaged, and why a program that thrives in one organization struggles in the one next door. It isn't a template. It's the science and the psychology, so you can build a program that fits your culture instead of copying someone else's.

Score your organization before you read the book.

Chapter 7 is a 21-question diagnostic of how your organization actually works, across five dimensions of culture. It's free right here, and you don't need to have read a page to answer it. Score it now, read the book, then score it again.

Start scoringAbout five minutes. No sign-up to see your results.

How scoring works

Rate each question from 1 to 5. Each dimension has an anchor that describes what a 5 and a 1 look like. Add up your ratings and divide by the number of questions. That's your dimension score.

The workbook does the math for you and names your two strongest dimensions and your weakest one. The weakest one is your first design problem.

  • 1Strongly unfavorable. This dimension actively works against a champions program in your environment. Design around it or solve it before you build.
  • 2Leaning unfavorable. Some friction here. You'll need specific design choices to compensate.
  • 3Neutral or mixed. Neither a strength nor a clear vulnerability. Monitor but don't over-index on it.
  • 4Leaning favorable. This dimension provides real support. Lean into it in your design.
  • 5Strongly favorable. That's a load-bearing wall. Build on it confidently.

The five dimensions

All 21 questions are below. The files add scoring, a results tab, and room for notes.

Dimension 1

Authority and Autonomy

Where does your organization fall on the spectrum from command-and-control to self-organizing?

Not scored

A 5 means people act and inform, initiatives start bottom-up, and unsanctioned initiative is celebrated. A 1 means people ask permission and wait, initiatives need senior sponsorship, and unsanctioned initiative is quietly discouraged.

  1. 1

    When employees identify a problem and want to address it, do they act and inform, or ask permission and wait?

  2. 2

    Are voluntary initiatives typically launched from the bottom up, or do they require explicit senior sponsorship to gain traction?

  3. 3

    When someone takes initiative that wasn't formally sanctioned and it goes well, is that celebrated or quietly discouraged?

  4. 4

    How much variation exists in how different managers respond to their team members taking on extra-role activities?

Dimension 2

Recognition and Motivation

How does your organization reward discretionary effort, and what does that mean for how you recognize champions?

Not scored

A 5 means extra-role contribution is visibly recognized and counts in reviews. A 1 means it is invisible or resented.

  1. 5

    Are there existing mechanisms for recognizing contributions that fall outside formal job descriptions?

  2. 6

    When someone goes above and beyond, does that get noticed at the team level, the organizational level, or neither?

  3. 7

    How does your performance management system treat extra-role behavior?

  4. 8

    Are there people in your organization who are visibly recognized for their informal influence and cultural contributions, or is recognition exclusively tied to measurable outputs?

Dimension 3

Risk Tolerance and Psychological Safety

How does your organization respond to mistakes, dissent, and initiative that doesn't follow the established path?

Not scored

A 5 means surfacing problems is rewarded, mistakes meet curiosity, and not knowing is fine. A 1 means blame, concerns kept quiet, and not knowing treated as a competence failure.

  1. 9

    When an employee raises a concern that creates friction for their manager or their team's workflow, what typically happens to that employee?

  2. 10

    Are there visible examples of people being rewarded for surfacing problems, or do people generally keep concerns to themselves?

  3. 11

    How are security mistakes currently handled when they surface: with blame, with curiosity, or somewhere in between?

  4. 12

    Do people in your organization feel comfortable admitting they don't know something, or is not knowing treated as a competence failure?

Dimension 4

Communication and Network Structure

How does information actually travel through your organization, and where do your champions need to sit within that flow?

Not scored

A 5 means strong informal networks, natural connectors, and organic cross-unit flow. A 1 means siloed teams and formal channels only.

  1. 13

    Does your organization have strong informal communication networks, or does most information travel through formal channels?

  2. 14

    Are there people or roles that naturally sit at the intersection of multiple teams and functions, serving as connective tissue between otherwise siloed groups?

  3. 15

    How does communication flow between business units: organically and frequently, or primarily through formal cross-functional processes?

  4. 16

    When something important happens, how does the average employee actually find out about it?

Dimension 5

Change Readiness and Initiative Fatigue

How many competing initiatives are already in play, and how much capacity does your organization have for another one?

Not scored

A 5 means few competing initiatives, a record of sustained sponsorship, and high goodwill. A 1 means many initiatives, a history of abandoned programs, and low goodwill.

  1. 17

    How many significant organizational initiatives are currently active?

  2. 18

    How have previous voluntary initiatives been received: with enthusiasm, cynicism, or indifference?

  3. 19

    What is the organizational memory of initiatives that were launched with visible support and then quietly abandoned?

  4. 20

    Does leadership have a track record of sustained commitment to programs beyond the announcement phase, or do priorities visibly shift with the news cycle?

  5. 21

    How much goodwill do you, personally, have with the stakeholders whose support this program needs?

Your cultural terrain

Score the questions above and your results show up here.

Keep your results

Your scores live in this browser only. Send them to yourself and get the read on all five dimensions, the workbook that tracks your baseline against your re-read, and the printable for your team.

The book is what you do about your score.

Your weakest dimension is your first design problem. Chapters 3 through 6 are the science under each of the five, so you can see why your scores came out the way they did. Chapter 7 gives a first move for every dimension and then runs the diagnostic on four very different organizations, none of which is yours. Chapter 13 is the ways these programs fail, including the slow drift from volunteer to voluntold. Chapter 15 is how to measure behavior instead of counting activity.

Get the book on Amazon

Get the workbook and the printable

The workbook averages each dimension, compares your first pass to your second, and names your strongest and weakest dimensions. The PDF is seven pages, letter size, with room for notes and team discussion.