What should you optimize for while staffing an enterprise transition team?

Recently, we were trying to find leads for an organizational change initiative that we think will take us to next level in software development. Specifically we wanted leads for four different workstreams. There were couple of view points on how to staff the enterprise transition team.

Option 1 - Lets staff folks who have shown passion in the areas we pick. Folks who have been thoughtpartners in those areas. For example, for the co-location workstream pick someone who understand the values of co-location and is passionate about it, and have even experimented with their teams.

Option 2 - Usually the same set of folks get the opportunity. This time lets give others the opportunity to lead such an initiative.

I strongly believe... folks who have been thoughtleaders and passionate about these changes should lead these initiatives. If you are passionate about anything you do, there is a great chance for making it a success, and that is important for the organization. Rewarding such folks, will also send the right message for the rest of the folks. The side benefit is that then it will require less oversight from leadership as they know exactly where we want to get to.

Having said that, I am sensitive to the fact that some folks have not gotten the opportunity to lead such initiatives. But, they are responsible for the situation they are in now. They have to show some initiative and thoughtleadership to be picked. As I always remind our folks.... this is a place where you can try and experiment whatever you want to do. Even if you try and fail, it doesn't matter. Then, why are you not trying. What are you passionate about? Find it, and run with it. We are here to support you. Show that your are real leadership material.

Anyway, in this case, we came up with a great middle ground. We ended up picking a pair for each workstream. One person who has been a thoughtleader in the area, and another person who has not got an oppurtunity before. We are also going through an exercise to make sure that everyone has a leadership opportunity for next year.

What would you optimize for in such a situation?