User Adoption Insights from Tri Tuns

User Adoption Insight Over Margaritas

Fri, 11 May 2012 23:42:00 GMT

This far into spring many Seattleites are more than ready for the first glimpses of that odd, warmish bright thing in the sky. When I lived back east we called it “the sun”. But sometimes, like this last Tuesday, we have to pretend and somehow manufacture our own sunshine.

Which is how a group of friends and I found ourselves at our neighborhood’s most brightly painted Mexican place. It was with near-salivating anticipation for our dry, near-perfect summers we ordered our pitcher of margaritas. Or…ok, maybe it had just been a long day for each of us.

Being the most technically-inclined person of the group – to the extent that I’m the only one with an iPod even – I try to be the one who kicks off our usual how-was-your-day round-robin with the briefest description of what I did, just to get my IT-related day behind us so we can talk about things that are common to the whole group. That day, I’d designed a Power Point presentation for an upcoming conference on user adoption in the cloud. When the conversation turned to the cloud my dear friend Jane, an office manager, recalled how just hours before her bosses sprung a new cloud-based Power Point-like software on her, telling her their whole organization was moving to it and she needed to learn it. Oh, and while she’s at it, convert all the other slide decks their office regularly uses too.

“It seems to me we’re always upgrading or switching to something totally new and the technology changes so fast, no one can keep up. It’s like technology’s moving so fast, we’re just running along behind doing our best to catch up, but we can’t. None of us can. It just moves that fast and changes that often. It’s not the technology’s fault. It’s just that as humans, we can’t change as fast as it does.”

Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t help but grin over my salted rim and say, “Precisely. And that’s where user adoption consulting comes in. We’re the ones you bring in to help you navigate through all those changes, with all those personalities and competing interests, and we set you up for the long-term. Because you know it’s going to change again. ”

Curt, a school counselor, looked at me and said, “So…it’s not the technology. It actually has nothing to do with the technology…it’s all about the people…and how they manage and get through the change, as individuals, as departments, as whole organizations.”

And it was like the sun came out right there at the table: the heretofore somewhat abstract notion of “user adoption” finally made sense to everyone at the table. Here was a real-life example they each could relate to; they’d heard it from someone going through it and heads nodded in recognition.

So while this last Tuesday afternoon didn’t set records for instant sunlight over Seattle, having my friends see a real-world example of what I do on a daily basis was definitely something to toast to.

Update Your Business Case: Include the Hidden Costs of Cloud Computing

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 03:30:00 GMT

underestimated costs = underestimated risk

It’s fairly well-known that we weigh many different factors when making a buying decision – some logical, some emotional. When purchasing cloud computing, it is easy to fixate on the most obvious factor - the monthly fee – while developing a blind spot for many other key considerations. For many IT buyers who are used to big dollar projects, the relatively low up-front costs of cloud computing can be as distracting as a sparkling toy to a child. (Ooo…shiny!)

So how do you ensure you don’t overlook key considerations that are lurking in your blind spot when you’re buying a new IT system?

The other day I was talking with the enthusiastic corporate sponsor of a bank’s new cloud-based software system and he told me with the number of impacted staff, ‘the whole thing will only cost $100 per employee.’ When I asked him to describe the process by which this software was chosen, he giddily told me how easy a decision it was, given that the most they’d be out if it failed was $100,000 over the next two years. He was excited by how little risk to which his buying decision had exposed the bank, given how ‘cheap and easy’ it would be to implement.. (I repeat: Oooo….shiny!)

Does this sound familiar?

As our conversation continued, it became obvious that this bank executive was fixated on the $100 per employee cost. It’s how he got buy-in and it’s what he’ll be measured on at the end of the year. However, despite numerous attempts from a variety of people, no amount of persuasion could convince him that there were any other cost considerations besides the check he’d sent to the vendor. His tight focus on the $100 per employee number meant he wasn’t able to consider anything that might change how he calculated the true cost of the cloud investment. It was clear his emotions were affecting his thinking and by significantly underestimating the true cost of the bank’s IT investment, this corporate sponsor also significantly underestimated the amount of risk the bank faced if the project failed.

Consider This

Industry estimates suggest the true cost of a cloud implementation is anywhere from 3 to 10 times the price of the system. To put that in hard numbers, even if the vendor is selling you the new system for only $100,000 per year, you’re staring down the barrel of a $300,000 to $1,000,000 in true costs.

And industry estimates suggest IT projects fail at a rate of 60 – 70%. (Oh. Not so shiny.)

Miscalculating an IT investment’s cost and opening up the organization to more risk means it’s even more important that you take action to make sure the system generates real value and capture a high ROI as soon as possible after go-live. After you adjust your estimated expenditures to reflect something closer to reality, you need a way to create value, produce positive ROI and mitigate the risk. How? It’s deceptively simple: get people to use the system. How do you do that? User adoption plans.

What It Means For You

When you consider all the costs of your cloud system, you probably have a lot more at risk than you originally expected. You therefore need to make sure you get more value from the system to justify the additional risk. You need to be able to demonstrate that your cloud system is being used and is creating real, measureable value. But how do you get people to use the system?

It’s really not about the technology, it’s about behavior. Changing the technology is the easy part (relatively). Changing peoples’ behavior takes a strategy and a way to execute that strategy, including having the organizational infrastructure, necessary skills, knowledge, experience, and, of course, executive support.

Things to Think About

What non-subscription costs do you need to include when determining your true cost of your cloud investment? Where else are you spending your time, resource, money and effort to purchase, implement and support your cloud system?

As the saying goes, “Time is money”, so calculate it as such. In addition to the price of the software if nothing else, figure in the costs associated with the full disruption of this project, from initial research to cost of training for future employees, by including the following in your calculations:

how many people are involved
rate(s) of pay (or a blended average)
for how many hours
over how many months
plus lost productivity

2. If your updated calculation has a higher cost basis, how does this affect your business case/ ROI forecast? What level of user adoption do you now need to make sure you get the benefits you need to justify the investment?

Many IT business cases fall down because they assume 100% user adoption. But what happens if you only get 40% effective adoption? 60%? 80%? Does your cloud investment still look attractive? Think about adjusting the business case for different levels of adoption, over various periods of time and see if the business case still makes sense.

3. Do you have a comprehensive strategy that ensures you reach your target level of user adoption? How will you ensure the highest rate of adoption possible? Do you have the resources, time, knowledge, skills or infrastructure to drive and sustain effective user adoption and achieve your ROI goals? If not, how will you get what you need?

Related Resources

Take the User Adoption Challenge to see what specific user adoption issues you face on your IT project.
Read "How to Sustain High CRM User Adoption" to learn more about how to have successful CRM (or other systems) implementations.
Read "High Stakes Gamble: Many Organizations Bet on IT Success with only a 1 in 4 Chance of Winning"

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK

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‘Set It and Forget It’ is a Recipe for IT Disaster

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 22:19:00 GMT

IF ONLY IT IMPLEMENTATIONS WERE JUST THIS EASY

In the days of yore, Ron Popeil, infomercial pioneer, made it look easy.

He invented a kitchen gadget to make our lives easier, and the only direction he gave was ‘set it and forget it’. One step to make a “delicious six lb. chicken!” or “not one but two delicious rotisserie chickens!” How much simpler is that than the way our moms and grandmothers cooked chicken?

If only the rest of life were that easy.

Especially new software systems.

In an ideal world, your IT team would come in, install the new software, and it would be such an great experience they’d just magically sit down and start using not only because it’s easy to use but because they want to use it. This scenario is as likely to fool the seasoned implementation manager about as well as Hair in a Can spray dispelled notions of impending baldness.

So what are you to do when – as typically happens – you introduce a new system, everyone’s excited at launch time and then several weeks (years) later you look at the usage statistics and you’re disappointed. What happened? Looks like you set it and forget it.

But people were trained, you say. We worked for months to convince them this change was a good thing, you insist. They were even kind of excited, you protest. On top of that, they’d had no choice but to use this new system and things still aren’t working out as you’d hoped. Now what?

CONSIDER THIS

Fundamentally, IT systems and user adoption are not set it and forget it kind of things.

Typically IT implementations follow a simple formula: go-live and go home. But the users don’t go home and they are what makes -- or breaks -- any IT investment.

In today’s world everyone needs to maximize the ROI of any IT investment, and the only way to realize that ROI is by holistically taking care of the people who use it.

It’s not traditional thinking but after go-live, users need constant care and feeding, no matter the system, no matter the type of implementation, no matter the organization.

So what do you do? You need to do something, you know this. But what?

Assess the situation for your user
Develop a plan accordingly
Assign someone responsibility for executing that plan
Create the infrastructure so that person, and the plan – and your users – will succeed

The fact of the matter is, an IT implementation doesn’t end at go-live, but rather it begins there. The world –inside your organization and with your competitors’-- is constantly changing. People will always need new and different information, there will always be turnover, and you will need specific people focused on getting the value you need from this investment. Only when people use the technology will you get the value you want.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU

‘Set it and forget it’ is how implementations used to be delivered. But the world has changed. These days you need to build a flexible, scalable and sustainable user adoption strategy before you implement your system. You need to map out the necessary efforts and actions your organization will take so it can extract the maximum business value from your investment. Comparatively, the technology side is easy; it’s all 1s and 0s and it does what you tell it to do. It’s the human element that complicates matters and requires you to focus more on the people and the organization than on the technology and the tools.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

How do you do implementations? Do you typically take a holistic approach, or do you set it and forget it? What have you experienced?

Whose job is it to make sure this happens? Do they have the skills?

Do you have the organizational capacity and willingness to carry out a sustainable user-focused program?

Does your internal team have the skills and experience to address these issues?

Do you have the infrastructure to achieve this in a fast, flexible and affordable way?

For examples of what to include in a holistic user adoption strategy, go to MyUserAdoptionPlan.com

And if you’re not sure how your project may be affected take the challenge. After all, saying they have no choice but to use it is ultimately counter-productive when you have the choice to be proactively motivating people to use it.

RELATED RESOURCES

Take the User Adoption Challenge to see what specific user adoption issues you face on your IT project.

Schedule a demo of Tri Tuns' "My User Adoption Plan" portal to see how it can provide a comprehensive infrastructure for ensuring effective stakeholder engagement & communications over the life of your system.

Read "How to Sustain High CRM User Adoption" to learn more about how to have successful CRM (or other systems) implementations.

Read "Does your User Adoption Methodology Remove Organizational Barriers" to learn about the limitations of traditional IT implementation and Organizational Change Management methodologies and how you can overcome these shortfalls.

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK

Was this information helpful? What did you learn? We want to hear from you - please add a comment below.

Is Your IT Systems a Dreamliner?

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:04:00 GMT

The 787 SHOWS US THAT NEW TECHNOLOGY BRINGS NEW RISKS

REPORTED

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner has been hailed as a revolutionary advance in technology that will provide the greatest advance in air travel since the Concorde. The Dreamliner uses new materials and technology and promises to cut 15% off its weight, dramatically lowering fuel consumption and costs. It’s obvious why airlines are salivating to get their hands on it.

However, like all new technologies, great advances come with great risks and lots of “unknowns”. The Daily Mail cites a recent GAO report that states while the Dreamliner is safe, it has introduced new risks and even the inspectors don’t know how to manage the new technology or how the risks change over time.

“U.S. inspectors said they do not know what to look for when the new composite [plastic wings & fuselage] starts to fail. …The report said it is unclear how the 787 will become damaged over time and it is not known what the damage to the composite will look like.”

– Daily mail, 03NOV11

NEW RISKS & YOUR IT SYSTEM

Can you image what will happen to Boeing if in a few years some problem is discovered with their new materials and/or design results in repeated 787 crashes? Or if the new composite materials turn out to have a lifespan that is only half of that of traditional materials? Lawsuits could fly and demand could be wiped out overnight. Do you think Boeing is going to monitor these risks and take action to mitigate them? You bet they are.

Just like with the Dreamliner, introducing new technology systems into your organization can provide revolutionary advances in capacity and benefits. The problem is, it also introduces revolutionary advances in risks as well. Unfortunately, many organizations get seduced by the potential benefits while ignoring the risks. And they do so at their peril. Are you going to make this mistake?

CONSIDER THIS

When implementing new IT systems, many organizations focus on getting the system live, but ignore what happens once it is in production. The value of your system – and the risks – only get introduced after the system is live. And they continue over the life of the system. This means that you need to manage the value creation and risk mitigation over the life system.

The FAA inspectors said they don’t even know what to look for to identify emerging problems with their technology. Will your staff know how to identify and manage the new risks (and opportunities) that your new IT system will introduce? How do you know?

The report indicated that it is unclear how the 787 will become damaged over time and what it will look like. If left unattended, do you know all the ways in which new IT systems can damage your organization?

WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU

When dealing with the “unknowns” of IT systems, you cannot prevent emerging issues, you can only respond to them. The best course of action is to develop the infrastructure and capacity necessary to identify emerging issues (and opportunities) and to quickly respond to them.

This means that you need to have:

Clearly defined and assigned the roles and responsibilities for ensuring your IT system is adopted in such a way that it is delivering value and not introducing unnecessary risks and exposure to your organization. This needs to continue over the life of your system.

Developed the tools, metrics, and reporting to give you visibility to emerging risks and opportunities. You need to identify risks and opportunities as early as possible.

Establish communication processes and tools that allow you to have 2-way communication with all stakeholders. This allows you to identify issues and respond back to them.

HOW TO DO IT

If your organization is like most, you probably agree that you need to do this, but you are not sure how. Tri Tuns can help.

We work with organizations to develop the infrastructure you need to manage risks and maximize the value of your IT systems.

With our new User Adoption Portal, MyUserAdoptionPlan.com, we help you drive effective user and provide you the capabilities you need to respond to emerging risks, needs and opportunities. And we can do it faster, cheaper, and easier than you probably thought possible.

In addition, with our expert services, we can provide the advanced knowledge and skills your team needs to make sure they identify risks before they become problems.

FIND OUT IF YOUR PROJECT IS AT RISK

Want to learn if your project is at risk. Take our free online assessment.

Want to stay updated of how you can get the most value from your IT system? Sign up for our Quick Tips and Insights Newsletter.

High Stakes Gamble: Many Organizations Bet on IT Success with only a 1 in 4 Chance of Winning

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:57:00 GMT

REPORTED

A recent article by the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), a research and advisory firm to leading organizations, stated that many companies in the Financial Services (FS) industry are increasing their investments in IT solutions, despite the volatile market conditions. What is shocking is that CEB reports, “only 24% of the controllers we recently asked believe they are realizing positive returns.” CEB is advising organizations, “to get more value out of finance IT by upholding data standards, aligning IT investments with real business needs, and focusing on end-user adoption”.

TRI TUNS VIEW

At Tri Tuns, we have found that many firms do not have effective User Adoption Strategies. Effective user adoption programs focus on driving desired user behavior – such as how and when people use the technology, the actions they take to ensure data quality, the degree to which they follow defined business processes, and the actions they take to ensure compliance. The skills and methods required to drive effective user adoption are very different from those required to implement IT systems. Unfortunately, these are often missing from most IT implementation projects.

The CEB post indicates that only 24% of controllers “believe” that they are realizing positive returns on their investment. Based on this, consider:

The remaining 76% of organizations do not believe they are getting a positive return on investment. This is a ridiculously high percentage. Even in Vegas you have a better shot of getting a positive return!

Would you make an investment if you only had a 1 in 4 chance of getting a positive result? (Well, you might if your portfolio includes shares in Solyndra.) Before making major IT investments, you should have a clearly defined strategy for when and how you will measure the ROI on your IT investment. What you will find is that User Adoption is the biggest item on this critical path. What you will probably find is that you are not doing enough to maximize and sustain user adoption over the life of your system, and this is the leading cause for failed IT investments.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Before investing in IT projects, make sure you have a clear User Adoption Strategy that aligns user behavior & adoption of the IT system with your business goals and IT ROI needs. Further, you need to determine how will you implement your user adoption strategy and sustain your User Adoption Program over the life of the system. Be sure to recognize that changes in the levels and effectiveness of user adoption (over time) will change the ROI you receive from your IT investment. Quite simply, whenever you stop measuring and driving effective user adoption your IT investment is at risk.

TRI TUNS CAN HELP

Tri Tuns helps organizations maximize the ROI on their IT investments by developing and implementing User Adoption Strategies that maximize and sustain effective user adoption over the life of the system. We conduct User Adoption Assessments, Develop User Adoption Strategies, and provide hands-on User Adoption Program Implementation services.

Tri Tuns also provides the MyUserAdoptionPlan.com, an online User Adoption Portal that addresses all of your critical User Adoption needs. MyUserAdoptionPlan.com is an all-in-one solution that helps you lower the time and cost to create and maintain user adoption programs, while increasing the effectiveness of your User Adoption Program. MyUserAdoptionPlan.com is based on User Adoption Best Practices and comes preloaded with the core content you need to quickly define and launch your User Adoption Program. Contact us to learn more.

The page above is from MyUserAdoptionPlan.com and shows some of they key User Adoption Program areas that you need to address as part of your User Adoption Program.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Check out MyUserAdoptionPlan.com – an all-in-one User Adoption Portal
Read: “Design the right metrics to improve user adoption”
Read: “Motivating User Adoption: Commitment, Compliance Or WIIFM?”
Read: "What is IT "Success"?
Read: “Leadership: Are You Really Committed?”
Read: “The Myth of User Resistance”

Johnny Dangerously on Effective User Adoption Communications

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:54:00 GMT

Is the Grapevine Killing Your User Adoption Communications?

Ensure Your Communications Are Accurate and Effective

In the clip below, Lil is trying to get a critical message to Johnny Dangerously, who is locked up in jail. It is a matter of life or death - Johnny must get accurate information about the threat to his brother's life. We see how easily the message gets mangled as it passes from person to person, until the final message that gets delivered is nothing like the original. Have you had a similar experience with communications in your organization?

Apply What You Learned: Carefully Manage All Communications & Beware of the Grapevine!

Accurate, timely and effective communications are critical to successful User Adoption programs. Make sure you have carefully develop appropriate communication channels and ensure that all stakeholders receive accurate information. This involves a variety of steps including setting up communication teams, developing multiple communication channels (live events, email, web sites, blogs, forums, webinars, various social media, etc.), developing a communication strategy, developing communication collateral, and then actually communicating with end users. It also involves carefully defining the roles and responsibilities for all parties involved in developing, approving, and delivering communications.

Best Practices & Key Questions

Develop a comprehensive communication strategy for your user adoption program. This includes:

Beware of the Grapevine!

What steps do you take to make sure that all of your communications are accurately conveyed to their intended audience? How are grapevine communications impacting your User Adoption program? What can you do to manage the grapevine in your organization?

Related Resources

Take the User Adoption Challenge to see what specific user adoption issues you face on your IT project.

Schedule a demo of Tri Tuns' "My User Adoption Plan" portal to see how it can provide a comprehensive infrastructure for ensuring effective stakeholder engagement & communications over the life of your system.

Read "Motivating User Adoption: Commitment, Compliance or WIIFM?" to learn more about defining success goals that will deliver the business benefits you need.

Read "What's Wrong with WIIFM" to learn more about effective User Adoption communication messages.

Tell us what you think

Was this a "teachable moment" for you? What did you learn? What else can this clip teach us about improving user adoption? We want to hear from you - please add a comment below.

User Adoption Teams & Johnny From Airplane!

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 21:21:00 GMT

Johnny from Airplane! Teaches us About Effective User Adoption Teams

Who do You Need on Your User Adoption Team?

We are often asked, "Who should I put on my User Adoption team"? In the clip below, we see all the "contributions" that Johnny makes to the team. Is he adding value along the way? Does having Johnny on the team help or hurt you? Does Johnny have the skills he needs to help, does he not care, or does he just not have a clue?

Apply What You Learned: Building a Great User Adoption Team

Effective User Adoption teams require a range of personalities, skills, and expertise. You will need subject matter experts and leaders ("Get me Rex Kramer"), people to do the hard work, and yes, people with personality to be the glue to hold them all together. However, if people do not have the skills or are unable or unwilling to make any substantive contribution, you may need to make some changes.

Pay careful attention to the people on your User Adoption team and make sure they are adding value. Sometimes you need people who look at thinks differently (like Johnny - who else could make hat, a brooch, or a pterodactyl)? These people can bring the ingenuity you need and provide laughs in the face of stress. ...but make sure they are actually adding value and not just taking up space.

Best Practices & Key Questions

Have a variety of personalities, perspectives and skills on your team

Have clear leaders and experts in User Adoption on your team

Related Resources

Take the User Adoption Challenge to see what specific user adoption issues you face on your IT project

Contact Tri Tuns to learn about our User Adoption Seminars and how they can help you build an effective User Adoption Team

Tell us what you think

Was this a "teachable moment" for you? What did you learn? What else can this clip teach us about improving user adoption? We want to hear from you - please add a comment below.

User Adoption & Sharks with Laser Beams

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:50:00 GMT

Dr. Evil teaches us about defining Success

How do you define Success?

In the clip below, Dr. Evil defines "Success" in terms of one, simple request: to have sharks with frickin laser beams on their heads. When he learns that this goal has not been met, he turns to his team to learn how close they came to hitting it - Sea Bass!

A Simple Request
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery — MOVIECLIPS.com

Apply What You Learned: Define Success in terms of User Adoption & Benefits Realization

Many IT projects make the mistake of defining success in terms of on-time & on-budge delivery of the IT system, rather than defining it in the terms of the desired impact and outcome. For IT projects, you should define success in terms of system usage and the measurable business benefits it delivers.

If you want sharks with laser beams, ask for them! If you want people to use the system and achieve a specific business result, ask for it!

Best Practices & Key Questions

Set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-Bound) User Adoption goals for each stakeholder group. Measure them over time to make sure you are hitting or missing them.

Acknowledge when you encounter an "It's a start" moment with user adoption, but still hold people accountable for achieving results.

Related Resources

Take the User Adoption Challenge to see what specific user adoption issues you face on your IT project

Schedule a demo of Tri Tuns' "My User Adoption Plan" portal to see how it can help you set SMART User Adoption Goals, hold people accountable for achieving them, and deliver desired results

Read "What is IT Success?" to learn more about defining success goals that will deliver the business benefits you need.

Tell us what you think

Was this a "teachable moment" for you? What did you learn? What else can this clip teach us about improving user adoption? We want to hear from you - please add a comment below.

What Can Warren Buffett Teach Us About User Adoption?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:14:00 GMT

IN THE NEWS

In a recent interview on CNBC Warren Buffett said that he could end the federal deficit in five minutes.

"I could end the deficit in five minutes. You just pass a law that says that any time there's a deficit of more than three percent of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election. Yeah, yeah, now you've got the incentives in the right place, right? (Laughs)” – Source: www.CNBC.com 07 July 2011.

What Warren Buffett knows that most people seemed to forget (or just ignore) is that you need to develop meaningful incentives that reward the desired behavior and work performance you want to receive. This simple concept is as true for politicians in Congress as it is for users of IT systems in your organization. User adoption is ultimately about changing user behavior. So how do we effectively change behavior? Looking to another part of life, there is evidence from public efforts to change driver behavior that programs that combine incentives with enforcement and consequences are more effective than programs that only focus on motivation alone. The Washington Post reports:

“The campaign against distracted driving has provided another illustration that American drivers are more likely to respond to safety initiatives when they carry the threat of punishment.

...Publicity efforts alone, such as the “Buckle Up for Safety” campaign, were high-profile failures, but the “Click It or Ticket” effort that followed is credited with increasing seat-belt use. The weeping victims of drunken driving who appeared in public presentations and in the media captured widespread attention, but experts say sobriety checkpoints provided stronger motivation for the use of designated drivers.” - Source: www.WashingtonPost.com 11 July 2011.

OBSERVATION

A common problem of most IT implementations is a focus on sending out 1-way communications, without developing truly meaningful incentive programs that drive desired user behavior. Many IT projects focus their communications on the typical, yet ineffective “What’s In It For Me (WIIFM)” message, but do little or nothing to define how they will measure user adoption and the rewards or consequences for meeting or missing adoption goals. In effect, the approach to user adoption found in many organizations is a “Buckle Up For Safety” campaign when a “Click It or Ticket” approach is needed.

CONSIDER THIS

If you want to improve user adoption, you need to make sure you have specified user adoption targets and defined policies that align incentives and rewards (including consequences) with desires behavior. The rewards and consequences must be strong enough – and meaningful to end users – to actually influence user behavior.

You need a structured program to measure user adoption against defined targets and then enforce your incentive policies. This may include setting monthly user adoption metrics and targets, and then providing regular reports to monitor performance.

You need to formally assign responsibility for implementing your incentive and rewards program. With “Click It or Ticket”, police officers are responsible for enforcing seatbelt policies. In your organization, it may fall to team leaders, department managers or directors. What matters is that everyone is clear on whose job it is to implement your user adoption policies.

Don’t forget that incentive programs that are heavily focused on driving user commitment to adopt systems are preferable to programs that only focus on compliance or WIIFM. Of course, even commitment-centric approaches still require that you have a structured program for monitoring adoption and allocating rewards.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Do you currently take a “Buckle Up for Safety” or “Click It or Ticket” approach to user adoption? Is it effective?

Are your incentive systems truly aligned to drive desired user behavior? Do end-users feel meaningful rewards and consequences if they do not use your system? How are they enforced?

How do you know if your incentive program is meaningful to end users? What do you do to validate that the rewards/consequences actually matter to the individuals whose behavior you are trying to change? Or do you just assume you have the right incentives?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Check out MyUserAdoptionPlan.com – an all-in-one User Adoption Portal
Read: “Design the right metrics to improve user adoption”
Read: “Motivating User Adoption: Commitment, Compliance Or WIIFM?”
Read: "What is IT "Success"?
Read: “Leadership: Are You Really Committed?”
Read: “The Myth of User Resistance”

Creating ownership teams to instill User Adoption

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:03:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

User Adoption (UA) is all about creating an infrastructure and support system that promotes end-users to enact the IT system as it was designed. At the end of the day, however, one can never force workers to perform exactly how you would want; neither can one monitor every behavior that occurs in the workplace. There must be some way then to ensure users enact the system as designed. Employees who perform best are professionals who can problem-solve on their own while receiving freedom and opportunity to do so. When system end-users are most engaged in problem-solving the system’s usage, they have a sense of ownership in determining the system’s success.

CONSIDER THIS

One way to encourage ownership is to seek volunteers for special projects (which I call “UA ownership teams”). These teams can take ownership in helping the organization to remove barriers to user adoption. Each team member can fulfill a duty, such as:

Review inputted data to ensure accuracy of data by all end-users.
Mentor less-tenured employees on proper system usage to develop skill set of employee base.
Identify best practices among end-users to enact new procedures.

One note of caution: make sure the projects have short timespans and are not overly taxing. Usually these team members must still complete their normal assignments (even if you temporarily scaled back the amount of work). If each project commands too much time and effort, you have taken away your best end-users from their normal work duties.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

As you plan to implement your next IT system, or are currently experiencing low adoption, consider incorporating end-users as part of your ownership teams.

RELATED RESOURCES

Check out these other resources for more information related to this topic:

Check out MyUserAdoptionPlan.com - an all-in-one User Adoption Portal
Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool
Read: “Does Your User Adoption Methodology Remove Barriers To Adoption?”
Read: “Retain User Adoption consultants beyond the initial contract to sustain ROI”

Help! I have no time to instill User Adoption.

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:06:00 GMT

OBSERVATION
User Adoption (UA) is critical to achieving your Return on Investment (ROI). What if you simply do not have the resources and time to establish all of the necessary components for a successful UA program? Enlisting the services of a UA consultant can help mitigate your limited resources while leaning on the consultant’s user adoption experience.

CONSIDER THIS

The first set of actions a UA consultant can help you with is to analyze your organization’s readiness to adopt the chosen IT system. The UA consultant will conduct interviews as well as analyze current processes and documentation to determine the most suitable strategies. The next set of actions is for a UA consultant to provide User Adoption strategies that will uniquely address the needs of your organization. These strategies include engagement activities, learning programs, process mapping, and user support mechanisms. Finally, the consultant can save you time by providing useful analytics reporting around end-user behavior. This kind of reporting provides valuable feedback as to how well your UA effort is proceeding.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

What may be capitalizing your time and attention is how to develop and enact an effective UA plan given your limited resources. Having a dedicated UA consultant will free up your valuable resources & time while leveraging the consulting expertise you need to jump start your UA efforts.

RELATED RESOURCES
Check out these other resources for more information related to this topic:

Check out MyUserAdoptionPlan.com - an all-in-one User Adoption Portal
Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool
Read: “Does Your User Adoption Methodology Remove Barriers To Adoption?”
Read: “Don’t Sell Employees. Fulfill their needs!”

Retain User Adoption consultants beyond the initial contract to sustain ROI

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 21:56:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

You are responsible for ensuring end-user adoption of the IT system in your organization. To ensure this occurs, you retained consulting services unique to user adoption, such as Tri Tuns. Now that the contract is near completion, you are worried that you may see a drop in employees using the system as designed – and hence a decrease in ROI. The one truism of user adoption (UA) is it must be proactively fostered throughout the life of the IT system. Therefore, creating a new statement of work for the UA consultants may be worthwhile, in order to build a long-lasting UA program.

CONSIDER THIS

As part of a new statement of work, UA consultants will provide a User Adoption program that extends beyond the go-live period. One key area that UA consultants can help is to establish an internal UA team (made up of client employees). You may already have an implementation team, but may not have specific assignments to foster user adoption long-term. UA consultants can help to:

Determine the right staff members become UA team members. Not always should the same people from the implementation team be a part of the UA team. That is because implementation team members are typically project managers and technical experts, where as long-term user adoption requires a team made up of system end-users and support staff.
Create solutions that will promote user adoption throughout the life of the IT system. One such example is creating data quality protocols with methods for monitoring and evaluating the accuracy of data input by end-users.
Develop a schedule for enacting each UA phase that minimizes disruption of pre-existing responsibilities for UA team members. Team members will undoubtedly have pre-existing workloads; therefore it is crucial to set a UA schedule that does not jeopardize any other responsibilities.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

As you plan for the completion of the initial consulting contract, think about how you can leverage additional services that will sustain end-user adoption.

RELATED RESOURCES

Check out these other resources for more information related to this topic:

Check out MyUserAdoptionPlan.com - an all-in-one User Adoption Portal
Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool
Read: “Does Your User Adoption Methodology Remove Barriers To Adoption?”
Read: “Design the right metrics to improve user adoption”

Don’t sell your employees on the system. Fulfill their needs!

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 21:58:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

A common practice – and TRAP – of change management is to attempt to convince (“sell”) end-users that the new IT system is beneficial to them. Change management teams spend several hours trying to “spin” their communications to attain this goal. The fallacy is spending time “selling” the benefits of the system without first understanding the end-users’ actual needs to properly use the system. This pitfall is grossly overlooked.

CONSIDER THIS

Change management teams often defend their approach, stating they apply due diligence by defining technical requirements. The problem is the technical requirements assume alignment to the daily practices of end-users. Often we find the architectural design does not compliment the practical application. As a different approach, User Adoption strategy consultants capture the most effective means of utilizing the system through interviews and observation of end-user behavior; this is done in concert with requirements definitions. The goal is not to ignore technical requirements, but to ensure the system technical requirements actually meet the end-user needs. This user adoption approach prevents the temptation to “sell” benefits to end-users, because their needs have already been identified and properly met.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

When you are about to develop a new IT system, seek out the actual needs (both business and technical) of your end-users. Then you will spend less time “selling” end-users, and more time satisfying their needs.

RELATED RESOURCES

Check out these other resources for more information related to this topic:

Check out MyUserAdoptionPlan.com - an all-in-one User Adoption Portal
Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool
Read: “Does Your User Adoption Methodology Remove Barriers To Adoption?”

Book it! Scheduling User Adoption activities is a must to ensure long-term IT success.

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:01:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

We have all experienced this: a round of discussions generating wonderful ideas, with a promise to reconvene and determine next action items. The problem is those action items rarely become a reality, because there was never a sufficient amount of follow-through to act on those ideas. We know that user adoption (UA) of IT systems does not occur without deliberate action items. Since the goal is to conduct specific activities that encourage end-users to engage your IT system as designed, we need to move from mere discussions and ideas to committed actions that promote user adoption. In order to maintain both focus and follow-through of user adoption plans, it is recommended to reconstruct your project team meetings in a way that generates ideas and creates specific follow-up actions.

CONSIDER THIS

For each strategy phase of the user adoption (UA) plan (e.g. analysis, engagement, learning, support, etc.) create two separate meeting times and agendas:

“Brainstorming Session”
“Implementation Planning”

Brainstorming Session:

Ascertain and list the relevant topics for that phase of the UA plan (rely not only on the project plan and initial team discussions but also on your UA consultant/expert).
Organize each agenda topic in a logical sequence to create a seamless and singular focus throughout the session.
Place specific time limits for each discussion topic, and be realistic as to what can be accomplished, as brainstorming/discussions can take longer than expected. Therefore do not attempt to overload the meeting agenda with too many topics. If needed, consider more than one brainstorming session vs. one long session.
During the brainstorming session, ALWAYS include the predicted impacts to user adoption of each idea.
Assign specific assignments to session participants with the due date set for the following meeting: “Implementation Planning”. Typically, these assignments are data gathering/research in nature, which shall help the team determine the implementation plan.

Implementation Planning:

Revisit each discussion topic in the same sequence from the brainstorming session.
Address the findings from the various assignments in order to decide how to best proceed. Again, validate each decision based on predicted impact to user adoption.
Agree to a specific series of implementation activities to enact your team’s decisions. This must include primary ownership and enactors of activities, time-frames, resources required, leadership endorsement and support.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

As you plan for your next UA meetings, remember what the overarching goal is: to enact specific actions that will create user adoption of your IT system. Using the above steps can help you and your team follow-through on your user adoption ideas to create long lasting results.

RELATED RESOURCES

Check out these other resources for more information related to this topic:

Check out MyUserAdoptionPlan.com - an all-in-one User Adoption Portal
Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool
Read: “D oes Your User Adoption Methodology Remove Barriers To Adoption?”
Read: “Design the right metrics to improve user adoption”

Design the right metrics to improve user adoption

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:06:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

Have you noticed that you spend a large amount of time documenting process flows but fail to measure their IT implementation? How do you know if the end-users are enacting the system as designed and contributing to the business goals? We know that process documentation is necessary to ultimately guide system end-users once an implementation is complete. However, many fail to realize that metrics need to be prepared to adequately determine if the new process flows are followed by system end-users. User Adoption metrics is the link between the new process design and the organizational change effort.

CONSIDER THIS

When determining which particular metrics to focus on, it is critical to consider user behaviors that both follow the new process design as well as behaviors that deviate from your intended process. Important user adoption metrics determine how much deviation there is between end-user behavior and the intended new process. Knowing these levels of deviation will help you determine how to influence and guide end-users toward the new process. The right metrics don’t necessarily need to be complex or sophisticated to provide accurate insight into the impact of current business processes (e.g. how long it takes to perform a particular process).

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Brainstorm both intended and unintended behaviors and outcomes during implementation in order to create the proper user adoption metrics. Here are some examples of insightful metrics: • How many resources touch a process from beginning to end? • List which resources touch that process. • What is the scope of the process activities performed by each resource? • Are there fewer or more resources (or handoffs) required due to automation? Remember, when planning user adoption metrics, determine what is valuable to know about a particular process. Metrics must be designed to ensure that the behavior of the new processes deliver the intended results. With proper metrics and planning, you will have the insight needed to reinforce desired behavior.

RELATED RESOURCES
Check out these other resources for more information related to this topic:

Check out MyUserAdoptionPlan.com - an all-in-one User Adoption Portal
Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool
Explore the array of Assessments that Tri Tuns offers
Read: “Accelerating User Adoption”
Read: “Motivating User Adoption: Commitment, Compliance Or Wiifm?”

What’s wrong with my questions? How IT projects typically fail to ask questions pertinent to long-term user adoption.

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:08:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

Does your IT implementation plan include a Change Management (CM) effort? It probably does. Does this CM effort include attaining information about the user community’s needs, in preparation for an IT build? Again, your answer may typically be yes. So what could possibly be missing? The answer lies in what you are not asking about your client. Most often, consulting firms and IT implementation teams only seek information about the technical requirements to an IT build. What they forget to determine are the organizational impacts and barriers to actually using the new IT system. Once the IT system is built and installed, it is a fallacy to assume the user community (system end-users) will adopt the new system fully and as designed (known as User Adoption). Therefore is imperative to determine factors beyond technical requirements that can positively and negatively affect system usage.

CONSIDER THIS

Below are just a couple of example questions one may ask the user community, in order to determine both organizational impacts and barriers to using a new IT system:

In addition to technical system training (e.g. classroom, reference guides), what other support mechanisms or skill set needs would help you operate the new IT system as designed (e.g. scenario process steps, vehicle for sharing best practices, etc.)?
What support would you like to see your managers provide to assist you in delivering quality services regarding the use of the new IT system?
Who will be responsible for the ongoing assessment and management of user adoption? How will you adjust their current roles & responsibilities to handle the added role?

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

As you plan to implement a new IT system, include assessments in your project plan that will address issues that will foster user adoption. Identifying user adoption issues during the project will better prepare the user community for both initial go-live of the system as well as long-term system usage.

RELATED RESOURCES

Check out these other resources for more information related to this topic:

Check out MyUserAdoptionPlan.com - an all-in-one User Adoption Portal
Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool
Read: “Does Your User Adoption Methodology Remove Barriers To Adoption?”

Getting Partnerships Back On Track

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:11:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

So you formed a partnership with another company, but it is not providing as much value as the effort you invested. In a prior blog article, “To Partner or Not To Partner” we discussed the pre-screening factors that you should consider before forming a partnership. Assuming now that you have already formed a partnership, what do you do if it is not bearing fruit? Instead of debating whether or not to continue this partnership, consider the following assessment.

CONSIDER THIS

The following questions will help you gather concrete information to have a fact-based conversation with your partner, with the goal of improving the partnership.

What is the amount of time (in hours) and money that you (compared to your partner) spend developing the partnership on:
1. Joint-Marketing Collateral & Events?
2. Joint-Client Deliverables and Methodology?
3. Educating each staff on partner’s value?
Is the amount of client work appropriately divided between each partner? Is the allocation of work justified by the differing skill sets of each partner?
How much time do you spend repairing the partner relationship vs. expand partner accounts?
Does the partner’s actions change to reflect your suggestions to improve or do they continue with the status quo?

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Partnership should require considerable investment – especially in the beginning – to ensure each party gets the most value. Should you find your partnership is not providing you due dividends, what is your plan to assess the situation and improve the partnership?

RELATED RESOURCES

Check out these other resources for more information related to this topic:

Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool
Read: “To Partner or Not To Partner”

To Partner or Not To Partner? How choosing the right partners can add value to sales efforts.

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:14:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

Consulting firms often debate whether to apply their business development effort toward building a partnership vs. seeking direct client opportunities. One key benefit of forming a partnership is the ability to expand sales opportunities while sharing marketing and sales costs. As tempting as it is to form a partnership with the goal to increase revenue while mitigating marketing/sales effort, you also should consider factors that could add frustration and internal cost if there is no alignment between the two companies.

CONSIDER THIS

While no one can predict the success or failure of a new partnership, there are some key considerations when evaluating potential partnerships:
1. Similar Company Values – this may seem nebulous and non-relevant to a business decision; however many business relations falter because one party valued a particular method of conducting business in place of the other party’s preferred value (for example: Party A pursues business sales no matter how the sale is achieved. Party B pursues business sales within ethical and legal parameters).

2. Matching Customer Profile – increasing sales in general is tempting, but if the new customers do not fit within your identified profile, you may not have the skill set to satisfy that new customer base. The result hurts not only your reputation, but also your new partner’s!

3. Balanced Workloads – just because you formed a partnership, you cannot afford to assume the workload to building and maintaining the partnership will be equal among partner companies. There are many instances where one partner ended up doing most of the internal, infrastructure work for the partnership (marketing collateral, sales outreach, IT systems, document management, etc.).

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

In addition to the above considerations, it is helpful to monitor the amount of business each partner generates for the other. If you or your partner is delivering an unequal and disproportionate amount of the sales opportunities, you both need to look at the numbers and evaluate why this is occurring.

1. How often will you monitor joint/shared sales leads? Examples:

Each week
Each month
Each quarter

2. In addition to evaluating the raw numbers, what other factors will you examine? Examples:

Customer type
Customer demographic
Pre-determined criteria for justifying contract is not for other partner

3. In some instances an effective partnership may be based not on equal contribution to the sales effort, but rather by one partner contributing a key capability that the other partner lacks. In such cases, does it make sense to evaluate the quality of the partnership based solely on each partners’ contribution to the sales effort? If not, how can you best evaluate the value and effectiveness of your partnership?

RELATED RESOURCES

Check out these other resources for more information related to this topic:

Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool
Read: “Return on Relationships”

Influence culture to drive user adoption

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:16:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

People often talk about corporate culture but they really don’t know how to sufficiently explain / define it, how to influence it, or how it can influence an IT project implementation. You may have tried to define what the culture of your client’s organization is today, but have you given thought to the readiness of your client’s organization to accept a new technology? You should, as this readiness is a key influencing aspect of your culture, and will influence the adoption of the technology you are implementing (User Adoption).

Low adoption of the technology will keep the organization from getting the most value out of its investment. Without driving adoption, you might see:

Limited usage of the new technology
Users expressing frustration and difficulty with the new system
Poor performance results at the individual and division level Let’s think about the technology implementation for your client. You may encounter resistance to the new technology.

In an effort to increase the readiness of accepting new technology we can measure culture and increase user adoption. There are four main areas to consider when assessing culture:

Leadership: Do leaders promote and support the new technology?
Processes: Are there multiple or conflicting processes in the way?
Training: Are staff properly trained, including and beyond technical training?
Project overload: Are there simultaneous projects competing for end-users’ time and attention?

Assessing and acting upon these 4 main areas will get you started to increase the organization’s readiness to accept new technology, which in turn will drive user adoption.

CONSIDER THIS

If your client’s technology is great but the level of readiness to apply the technology is low, you will not see much user adoption. In the below diagram, one can see a direct correlation between organizational readiness and end-user adoption. Your goal is to focus on increasing readiness by utilizing and acting on the assessment criteria stated above. This will put you on the way to creating a culture of increased readiness and improved user adoption, the goal for any technology implementation.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Have you thought about user readiness for new technology when trying to assess the culture of an organization?

RELATED RESOURCES

Check out these other resources for more information related to this topic:

Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool
Read: “Accelerating User Adoption”
Read: “Motivating User Adoption: Commitment, Compliance Or Wiifm?”

How to sustain high CRM User Adoption

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:18:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

We have found that the best way for organizations to “boost” and then “sustain” high CRM user adoption is to develop and implement a comprehensive user adoption strategy. Most CRM failures occur when organizations take a Go-Live centric approach to CRM (on-time & on-budget delivery of technology) without taking the necessary actions to drive and sustain user adoption over the life of the system. It is important to recognize that user adoption is all about changing user behaviors; it is not about technology. The skills and methods you use to change behavior are very different than those required to build and deliver effective CRM systems. This means that the people who lead and manage your CRM system implementation may not be (and probably are not) the right people to lead the user adoption program.

CONSIDER THIS

Here are some (though not all) key elements of a CRM user adoption program:

ASSIGN OWNERSHIP FOR CRM ADOPTION - Give a senior executive overall accountability, authority, and required resources to drive and sustain CRM adoption. Make this a meaningful portion of the executive’s performance & bonus criteria to ensure they are properly motivated to put in the time and resources required to make the CRM project a success.
DEFINE CRM SUCCESS – Define success in terms of user adoption, business value creation, and ROI. Determine specific CRM success measures (quantitative and qualitative) and align all employees’ performance management plans (and rewards) to these goals.
ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS – Conduct a comprehensive analysis of your organization to identify all of the key factors that encourage or inhibit CRM adoption. This includes looking at policies, processes, reward systems, communication activities, job descriptions, leadership, and existing user attitudes and behaviors. Use this information to shape your overall CRM adoption strategy.
SHIFT FROM "USER RESISTANCE" TO "REMOVE BARRIERS" – Make clear distinctions between instances of user resistance vs. organizational barriers that prevent adoption. Many people fall in the trap of “blaming the users” for not adopting CRM when often times there are organizational barriers – that fall outside of the users’ control – that prevent users from adopting the CRM system.
FACILITATE ADOPTION – Take specific actions before, during, and after go-live to facilitate full and effective user adoption. Communications and training are necessary, but not even close to sufficient, for driving effective user adoption. (This is an example where you may need a different skill set to drive adoption. If you are not sure what else you need to do to “facilitate adoption” this may mean that you do not have the right skills and/or right methodology for driving user adoption.

You may want to consultant an outside user adoption expert for help.) 6. MEASURE & EVOLVE – Measure user adoption at regularly scheduled intervals, update CRM adoption goals, identify specific CRM adoption activities to be completed, and adjust your CRM adoption program as necessary to ensure your CRM system is meeting current and future ROI goals.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Implementing an effective CRM adoption program is not easy and it does take time, resources, and User Adoption expertise. Nonetheless, with a commonly reported CRM failure rate near 70%, it is clear that organizations need to take action to protect their CRM investments. In the future, you will find more organizations implementing comprehensive CRM user adoption programs as part of all CRM initiatives.

RELATED RESOURCES

Check out these other resources for more information related to this topic:

Check out MyUserAdoptionPlan.com - an all-in-one User Adoption Portal
Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool
Read: “What is IT "Success"?

Can’t I Just Email Them? Why User Adoption cannot occur remotely.

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:20:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

Do you remember when there was no email system? When you had only two choices of either meeting by phone or in person to conduct business? As amazing as technology is – along with its conveniences – it also has the potential to take away value that we otherwise would get from more direct means of communication. Consultants especially lose value when they interact with their clients primarily through email. Not only can a consultant lose time awaiting client responses, that consultant does not get the opportunity to explore a more accurate assessment of a client’s current state, in order to provide the best recommended solution.

CONSIDER THIS

Generally, a consultant’s success can be measured in three main categories:

How accurately the consultant has assessed the client’s current situation.
How much trust the consultant has built with the client to accept the consultant’s recommendations.
How well and quickly the consultant can execute all aspects of the contract (assessment, recommendations, development, delivery, etc.).

For this article, we shall focus on categories 1 & 2.

Category 1: Assessment Email correspondences provide a very narrow perspective of the client situation. A good consultant assesses a client’s current situation through a variety of mechanisms, in order to form a complete understanding of what the client will ultimately need for the consultant to help them. This variety of data gathering mechanisms (known as triangulation) includes surveys, interviews with client members, project team meetings, review of client documentation, among others. As emails may only share the perspective of a couple client members, the alternative/additional mechanisms gather insight from multiple client members; a truer picture of the client situation is revealed.

Category 2: Trust in Recommendations Once the consultant has a better understanding of the client’s true needs, the consultant can propose a more specific recommendation(s) unique to that client. However, what is to assure the client will agree to such recommendations? This is where trust is key. Have you ever formed a relationship - rooted in trust - via email? Of course not, the basis of all relationships occur through repeated conversations and in a variety of venues – mainly in person. The same is true when forming trust with clients. Working with clients more directly and in person allows the consultant a chance to learn about the client; but it also provides the client to learn about the consultant. The more the client understands the consultant’s intentions and feels the consultant understands their situation, the more likely the client will accept the consultant’s recommendations. The goal is achieved!

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

As you think about your daily consulting practice – particularly when you are assessing a client’s situation or are developing particular client recommendations: 1. How much time passes between the back-and-forth emails that could be quickly resolved by a phone call or meeting? 2. What level of insight are you getting about your client’s situation through email correspondences vs. alternate means of communication? 3. Note the level of acceptance to your recommendations vs. “push-back” you receive from your clients when interacting face-to-face vs. email. What is the ratio difference?

RELATED RESOURCES

Check out these other resources for more information related to this topic:

Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool
Read: “Does Your User Adoption Methodology Remove Barriers To Adoption?"

Why User Adoption activities should start before go-live

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:22:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

Clients often place priority on the technical build and implementation over end-user readiness. Their assumption is that once the new system becomes operational (go-live), they can focus on getting end-users to engage the system as designed. However, clients often have too little knowledge of end-user needs and barriers which leads directly to inaccurate usage and/or less than full adoption. For example: a client has not fully defined and educated end-users on process changes required to align with operating new system. End-users will make mistakes in the new system by incorrectly following old process steps.

CONSIDER THIS

Completion of technical system build does not equate to business nor system success. The system may be ready for use, but the organization may not be ready to use it. New systems often bring new functionality, and this leads to new processes. Organizational practices need revising to align with using the new system, and these changes affect user performance with the new system.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Which is the higher priority? Getting the system live on time, or getting the organization prepared to use the system as designed? If the answer is both, then your project team must include pre go-live activities that address both needs.

RELATED RESOURCES

Check out these other resources for more information related to this topic:

Check out MyUserAdoptionPlan.com - an all-in-one User Adoption Portal
Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool
Read: “Does Your User Adoption Methodology Remove Barriers To Adoption?”
Read: “The Myth Of User Resistance”

Return on Relationships

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:24:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

It is a common trap on many IT projects that team members are so focused on ensuring project “success” (typically defined as on-time and on-budget delivery) that team members forget the critical importance of developing and maintaining effective relationships. Ironically, forgoing the relationship building elements of the project (e.g. developing trust, ensuring effective project team interaction, etc.) often causes project delays, disagreements, and quality problems which ultimately lead to the project running late, over budget, or otherwise being deemed a failure.

When project teams skip the critical step of building effective relationships:

Project timelines are increased due to extensive time being wasted resolving disagreements, such as different views on scope of work, bugs vs. enhancements and performance measurements
Stakeholders are unwilling to divulge important information with consultants and/or internal project team members, leading to ineffective solutions being developed and implemented
Problems slowly escalate and disagreements become more intense as the project go-live date nears.

Many times the problems that lead to project failure can be prevented - or at least more effectively resolved - if team members invest time and energy in developing honest, trusting, effective relationships from the very start.

CONSIDER THIS

Investing time and energy to develop effective, trusting relationships with team members, clients, partners and others will deliver benefits that far exceed the costs. This is realized through proactive collaboration and teamwork, streamlined problem resolution, improved customer satisfaction, increased referrals and references, and maintaining long-term, profitable relationships (a positive Return on Relationships). Project team members should view time spent relationship building as an investment that will deliver future benefits. The perceived benefits of skipping or short-changing relationship building efforts are much lower than the very real costs when the project encounters the inevitable stress and disagreements that emerge (a negative Return on Relationships).

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Do you typically have a positive or negative Return on Relationships? What could you do to ensure you have a positive Return on Relationships? What additional benefits would you get from spending more time developing positive relationships with each stakeholder? What problems could be avoided by doing so?

Do your project team members know how to develop effective relationships? Can they repair damaged relationships? Are they comfortable working with clients? Other departments? Senior executives? Many times project team members are great subject matter experts in their field, but they do not know how to develop and maintain effective professional relationships. Team members – even senior members – may need help learning to develop productive professional relationships.

What can you do to build trust with each stakeholder? Trust is the ultimate tool for relationships. This tool can neither be granted nor created during a single meeting; it is built slowly and steadily over time through repeated interactions. What can you do to ensure that once it is earned, you maintain the trust of others?

RELATED RESOURCES

Check out these other resources for more information related to this topic:

Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool
Read: “Leadership: Are You Really Committed?”
Read: “Does Your User Adoption Methodology Remove Barriers To Adoption?”
Read: “Motivating User Adoption: Commitment, Compliance or WIIFM?”
Read: “The Myth Of User Resistance”

Resistance is a Judgment, Not an Action

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:28:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

When talking about user adoption of major IT systems – CRM, ERP, HRIS, etc – at some point the discussion always focuses on overcoming “user resistance”. When I probe deeper and ask clients to define exactly what they mean by “user resistance” (what form it takes, what causes it, and what they do to “overcome” it) they often struggle to provide specific answers. If we cannot accurately articulate the problem, how can we recognize and solve it?

The term “user resistance” has become a vague concept - a convenient short-hand of sorts – that is used to justify poor user adoption. Implicit in this term are the ideas that 1.) user adoption is solely at the discretion of the end-user and 2.) if the end-user does not adopt your system it is an act of defiance. If you accept this to be true, it follows that the responsibility for overcoming user resistance lies completing at the feet of the end-user. This just isn’t true.

In a previous blog entry on leadership, I shared the quote, “We judge others by their actions, but we judge ourselves by our intentions.” When discussing user resistance it is very important to recognize that we observe discrete actions (user behaviors), but it is not until we assign our judgment that they become “user resistance”.

When we judge an action to be “user resistance” it has serious implications:

It blames the user. By shifting responsibility for IT adoption from the implementation & management team to the end-user, we have created a convenient scapegoat if the system is deemed a failure.
It helps us save face. By focusing all the attention on the users, we don’t need to examine where we might have done something wrong or lacked the skills to perform our jobs.
It creates blind-spots. Our approach to change management might have been inappropriate, and as a result we might have ignored barriers to adoption that fall outside the users’ control. These organizational barriers could be what are preventing users from adopting the system.
It ignores root-causes & contributing factors. Focusing on user behaviors may cause us to miss other technical, organizational, functional, process, data, or other factors that prevent user adoption.

CONSIDER THIS

Whenever the label “user resistance” is assigned, this is a signal that YOU have more work to do.

Stop and clarify what are the specific actions you observed.
Identify what made you determine that these are instances of “resistance”.
Determine if there are other explanations or contributing factors for these actions. Share your observations with the actual end-users and ask for their help in understanding what caused the behaviors, while requesting specific alternative behaviors they should take in the future.

By shifting our focus from “user resistance” to other explanations for poor user adoption we can:

Look at other issues, contributing factors, and root-causes for undesirable behavior
Find new solutions where before we might not have seen alternatives
Take ownership and action for driving user adoption – without abdicating this responsibility to the end-users
Help move things forward and drive success

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

What made you decide that the problem was “user resistance”? What specific actions/behaviors did you observe that led you to this conclusion?
What causes the users to demonstrate this behavior? Was this an act of defiance? Were users not clear on what behavior was expected of them? Did you share your observations and suggest specific alternative actions they should take in the future?
Are there other causes/drivers for the action (or inaction)? Are there organizational barriers that prevent users from acting as desired? Are there misaligned rewards or incentives that are encouraging the problem behavior?
Is there something that YOU can do to change user behavior? Is there something YOU need to do differently to drive desired behavior? Is there something about your change or user adoption methodology that is encouraging the behavior that you labeled “resistance”?

RELATED RESOURCES

Check out these other resources for more information related to this topic:

Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool
Read: “Leadership: Are You Really Committed?”
Read: “Does Your User Adoption Methodology Remove Barriers To Adoption?”
Read: “Motivating User Adoption: Commitment, Compliance or WIIFM?”
Read: “The Myth Of User Resistance”

Leadership: Are You Really Committed?

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:30:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

“We judge others by their actions, but we judge ourselves by our intentions.” We all know that leadership commitment to a new project, IT system, or business transformation is critical for motivating people to change and embrace the new initiative. People in an organization look to the leadership for cues about their level of commitment and then they adjust their behavior accordingly. So, the challenge is, how do we know if our leaders are truly committed? Far too often I have seen where people talk about the need for management “commitment” or “buy-in” but they don’t talk about exactly what they mean by these terms or how they will recognize when they have it (or don’t). Many projects get into trouble because they equate simply sending out some communications or holding a meeting with key leaders as having commitment. These are activities intended to build commitment, they are not evidence of actual leadership commitment.

CONSIDER THIS

It is not enough to just be verbally committed to an initiative; the commitment needs to be backed up by observable action. The people you are trying to support and motivate will judge your commitment based on your actions, not just your words. Further, once they observe an action, they need to ascribe a meaning to it. You may need to support your actions with words to help people correctly interpret your actions and link them to your intentions.

To help people observe and correctly interpret your actions:

Get people to move beyond just words to focus on demonstrating commitment. If you can’t see it, you don’t have it.

Help people to know exactly what they need to do to demonstrate their commitment. Set SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound) for how people can and should show their support.

Let people know what actions they should be looking for from their leaders as evidence of leadership commitment. If necessary, explicitly state the intention behind the action so that people extract the desired meaning from the actions they observe.

It’s not just the leadership who need to know how to demonstrate their commitment. Help everyone in the organization know what specific actions they can take to show their coworkers and supervisor that they too are embracing the new initiative.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Do your observable actions match your intentions? How do you know? Do you obtain feedback from others about what they observe and how they interpret your actions? If there are disconnects here, how will you adjust?

How do leaders know what actions they need to take in order to demonstrate their commitment in way that is meaningful others? Do you provide leaders (and others) with guidance as to the specific actions they need to take?

How do you determine what actions a leader should take to demonstrate commitment? Do you ask the people in the organization what are the specific things they would like to see management do to demonstrate they are committed to the project?

Do you explicitly state your intentions behind your actions so that people know that you are trying to demonstrate your commitment and support? If not, how can you make sure that people understand why you have taken an action and what it is you would like them to take away from their observation of your activities?

RELATED RESOURCES

Check out these other resources for more information related to this topic:

Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool

Read: “Motivating User Adoption: Commitment, Compliance Or Wiifm?”

Read: “The Myth Of User Resistance”

Read: “What’s Wrong with WIIFM”

Myth: "They Will Have No Choice - They Will Have to Use the System"

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:33:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

“People will have no choice – they will have to use the system”. Really? Whenever I hear someone say this I get worried – mostly because every time a client has uttered these words I found that their systems were in big trouble and not being used.

There tends to be an assumption amongst many IT and business leaders that if a system is core to their operations then people cannot perform their jobs without using it. This leads to the fallacy that employees will have no choice but to use the system and no further effort is required to drive and sustain user adoption. Upon closer inspection we see that even with “core” systems, people have tremendous choice when it comes to using a system.

For example, people choose:

Timing. Do people use your system at the right time? Do they enter data right away or do the wait days or weeks before entering critical data?
Accuracy. Do people search through the drop-down list to select the correct response or do they just quickly select anything in the list so they can move on quickly?
Completeness. Do people put in all the relevant information in your free text fields or do they put in a single letter, word or sentence just because the system requires that they enter something?
Compliance. Do people follow the defined process in the system or do they treat most activities as “exceptions” that require manual transactions outside your system?
Pervasiveness. Do people use all of the system functions and capabilities or do they only use a limited subset of the available functionality? What value is lost because only a small portion of the system capabilities are fully utilized?

CONSIDER THIS

Claiming that people will “have not choice” is not only inaccurate; it is a very dangerous assumption to make. The reality is that people have tremendous choice about how, when and the degree to which they use your systems. The choices people make here are often the critical different between whether a system is considered a success or a failure.

Organizations looking to ensure IT success need to recognize that users always have some choice when it comes to how they use technology – even with “core” systems. Once you recognize that no person, process or technology can ever mandate adoption by others, you need to shift your focus to developing and executing a user adoption strategy that drives effective user adoption over the life of the system.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Do you assume “people will have no choice” but to use your system? Did you assume this with your previous systems? Did you get full and effective user adoption with those systems? If not, why not?

If you change your assumption to, “people have lots of choice about where, when and how they will use the system,” how does this shift the way you approach driving user adoption? Will this change the way you motivate, monitor, measure, and reward effective system use?

What are all the areas (processes, functions, etc.) in your system where people have a choice about how and when they adopt your system? What is the impact if they do not use the system (for each area)? Who is impacted if it is not used? What is the impact?

Related Resources

Check out these other resources for more information related to this topic:

Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool
Read: “Accelerating User Adoption”
Read: “Motivating User Adoption: Commitment, Compliance Or Wiifm?”
Read: “Does Your User Adoption Methodology Remove Organizational Barriers?”
Read: “The Myth Of User Resistance”
Read: “What’s Wrong with WIIFM”

What is IT "Success"?

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:34:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

We consistently read about IT “Failure” and how much it costs organizations each year, but how often do we actually read about IT “Success”? What is IT success? How do we know when we have achieved it? Why is it so elusive? Perhaps part of the reason for such wide spread IT failure is that we did not adequately define success.

Historically, IT projects were considered successful if they were completed on-time and on-budget. While this is indeed a great achievement, this is not success. True success is only achieved when the organization realizes measurable benefits from the use of its IT investments.

For many years, organizations focused on the successful delivery of IT Projects, while ignoring the most important part of IT success – namely making sure the systems are used to deliver business value. The table below defines key differences between IT Project Success and Business Success.

Will You Have...

CONSIDER THIS

Preventing IT failure and delivering successful IT systems requires that we shift our focus from delivery of IT systems to adoption of IT systems to create business value. This has tremendous implications for how we approach both the initial implementation and the ongoing management of live systems.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

How do you define IT success? Are you successful when you get the system live or when it is actually used & delivering value?

Have you developed a User Adoption Strategy to create and sustain full & effective system use? Does your strategy define & remove all barriers to user adoption?

What is your long-term plan to measure and sustain benefits realization over the life of the system? What will you do to ensure your system is delivering value 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, etc. years after go-live?

WHERE TO GET HELP

Do you know if your IT project is at risk? Take our free online assessment and find out.

Tri Tuns offers a variety of organizational and IT project reviews & assessments that can help you identify project risks and prevent failure. Contact us today to learn more.

ACCELERATING USER ADOPTION

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:37:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

Most IT projects focus on the supply of IT delivery – that is, they focus on getting the technology live – and they often ignore the key issue of driving full user adoption and benefits realization. Further, there is an assumption that the key elements that determine user adoption are inherent to the specific technology tool itself and thus user adoption issues cannot be addressed until the system is up and running. However, the bulk of the factors that drive user adoption are in factor organizational, not technical and thus can – and should – be addressed before the system goes live.

Through many years of research and direct client work we have found that organizations can actually de-couple the organizational change and user adoption efforts from the technology implementation schedule.

For example:

Organizations can change performance metrics before the new system goes live to shift employee behavior and reward employees for achieving business goals
Executives and managers can shift how the lead and motivate staff to focus on new organizational priorities before the system is live. They can explain specific shifts in employee behavior that are required now and provide a context for understanding how the new system will support further performance improvements once live
Conflicting organizational priorities – such as focusing employees on getting work done “fast” versus spending a little more time to make sure they get it done “right” can be addressed before the system is live.
New organizational teams can be established to address cross-department performance issues that will affect user adoption of the system can be established today. These teams can address critical issues such as when one department does not enter the data that another department needs to perform their job.

CONSIDER THIS

You can increase user adoption and accelerate benefits realization by developing a comprehensive User Adoption Strategy (not just a “change management” plan) that begins addressing user adoption challenges before the system goes live. By de-coupling organizational changes and employee performance issues from the technology delivery, you can accelerate the rate at which your organization realizes business benefits from their IT projects.

Since many of the factors that affect user adoption are technology agnostic you will face these issues at some point anyway. Addressing these issues before go-live can reduce the feeling of “change overload” and make it easier for people to quickly begin using your new system.
In many instances they can even improve adoption levels of existing technology. Since many IT projects take several years to complete, increased adoption of existing technology can provide substantial benefits to your organization.
Any effort to accelerate user adoption before go-live should be set in the context that these efforts are part of preparing the organization for the new system. This allows people to see the link to the future system and it will further accelerate adoption of the new system once it goes live.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Have you identified & do you fully understand all of the organizational and “people” issues that affect user adoption? If not, how will you identify these issues?
What user adoption & benefits realization issues can you de-couple from the technology delivery? What can you do to address these issues before and after go-live?
How much additional value (benefits realization) can you add to your organization by addressing key organizational and user performance issues before go live? Since this work is done as part of your system implementation effort, how can you measure and report on this additional value creation to show the early success of your project and further gain executive support for your project?

RELATED RESOURCES

Check out these other resources for more information related to this topic:

Check out MyUserAdoptionPlan.com - an all-in-one User Adoption Portal
Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool
Read: “Does Your User Adoption Methodology Remove Barriers To Adoption?”
Read: “Design the right metrics to improve user adoption”

THE DEATH OF SDLC

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:39:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

In the early days of IT computing, many organizations had custom systems built to meet their specific needs. Programmers adopted the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) which guided their actions during the various code development phases until they system was fully built and tested. Over time, organizations realized they could benefit more by getting out of the custom system development business in favor of implementing pre-built Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) applications. Unfortunately, the basic methodology used to help organizations implement, adopt, and realize benefits from COTS systems still follows the SDLC, which was created to facilitate the technical development of computer code.

So, what’s wrong with SDLC? Why do we need to consider alternatives?

SDLC is focused on addressing technical development challenges, not on driving user adoption and measurable business benefits.
- User adoption and business benefits are primarily human performance challenges.
- SDLC was not created to address human behavior and it does not do so effectively.

Most IT projects only include limited “change management” as a bolt-on to the end of the SDLC cycle without critically examining if this is effective. Typically, it’s not.

Many IT projects following the SDLC are structured such that once the technology is live and stabilized, the project is complete.
- Change Management is typically treated as a “one and done” focused on the initial deployment.
- Ongoing efforts are required to drive and sustain user adoption over the life of the system. These are typically absent from most change management efforts.

CONSIDER THIS

Organizations need to view IT projects as human and organizational performance projects that just happen to involve deploying new technology. They should not view them simply as technology projects. Changing the way we perceive, approach, structure and execute projects will improve benefits realization and help organizations achieve measurable business goals.

Organizations need to move beyond just following the technical SDLC and instead adopt more robust human performance improvement methodologies. These methodologies need to address the myriad organizational and human performance challenges that affect how people use technology.

User adoption methodologies should NOT be dictated by technology experts or by people who blindly following existing methodologies without understanding how to change their approach to address the deficiencies of current efforts.

The people who develop and execute user adoption methodologies should have a firm grounding in the fields of psychology, organization behavior, and human performance such that they understand the theory, research and practices upon which sound change and user adoption methodologies are built. It is not sufficient to simply know how to apply an existing methodology when the methodology itself may be part of the problem.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Do you primarily follow the SDLC approach to your IT projects or have you updated your methodology to better address the human and organizational performance challenges ignored by the SDLC??

Do the people who are defining your change management and user adoption methodology have expertise in the relevant theories and practices from the fields of psychology, organization development, human performance, etc. or are they primarily technology specialists? Could they develop an effective human performance improvement program if there were no new technology being deployed?

If you were brought in 3 years after the system is live to address user adoption challenges (without changing the system or processes), what specific things would you do to improve adoption and increase human performance? Have you included these activities in your initial change and adoption approach?

Does your current methodology include developing the structures, processes, policies, and activities required to measure and sustain benefits realization over the entire life of the system? If not, how will you ensure user adoption & benefits realization continue 1, 3, 5, 10, etc. years in the future?

RELATED RESOURCES

Check out these other resources for more information related to this topic:

Check out MyUserAdoptionPlan.com - an all-in-one User Adoption Portal
Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge - a free online assessment tool
Read: “Does Your User Adoption Methodology Remove Barriers To Adoption?”
Read: “Design the right metrics to improve user adoption”

WHAT’S WRONG WITH WIIFM?

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:40:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

For years many pundits have said that the best way to motivate user adoption is to “sell” people on what they get for using the new system. They argue that you need to constantly tell each person, “What’s In It For Me” (WIIFM). So, after many years of organizations beating the WIIFM drum, we find that most IT systems still suffer from low or ineffective user adoption. Is it time to re-think WIIFM? I strongly suspect that the people who first came up with WIIFM were management consultants, not psychologists.

Back in the 1960’s Yale psychologist Victor Vroom^[1]developed the Expectancy Theory^[2] that basically states that employees will be motivated to take action if:

There is a positive correlation between efforts and performance
Favorable performance will result in a desirable reward
The reward will satisfy an important need
The desire to satisfy the need is strong enough to make the effort worthwhile

The problem is that the WIIFM message – as it is typically applied - rarely meets these criteria. Here’s why:

The reward for adopting the system needs to be meaningful and desirable to each individual employee. Many IT projects do not actually take the time to learn what is a meaningful to the individual and just issue a one-size-fits-all WIIFM message.
The rewards that we desire change over time and vary from person to person. For example, what motivates a young employee is be very different from what motivates an older employee who is close to retirement.
Organizations with a poor track record implementing systems, often lack credibility. Quite simply, employees don’t believe the system will deliver the anticipated benefits or that they will benefit from using the system.
WIIFM messages often push the benefits of adopting new systems, while ignoring the costs/effort involved. Many times it just “isn’t worth it” to the employees to go through the pain of adopting the new technology.

CONSIDER THIS

Instead of trying to sell employees on WIIFM, help them focus on the need to shift their behavior. The psychological theory of Cognitive Dissonance^[3] shows us that when people hold conflicting views on a subject they are motivated to change (or justify) their attitudes, beliefs, or behavior. For us, this means we need to help people realize that the business needs, environment, performance requirements, and management expectations have changed and that the behaviors that made them successful before need to shift.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

How can you set the expectation that it is no longer business as usual and that employees need to change their behavior in order to succeed in the future?
Have you explicitly stated what has changed and what are the new expectations for employee performance? For example, have you developed communications that state things like:
- Changes in the economy require that we become more competitive by doing X
- New government regulations require we do X,Y, and Z
- In order to be eco-friendly and good corporate citizens we need everyone to do A, B and C
How can you shift from primarily 1-way, passive communications, to better engage employees in 2-way discussions? Do you engage employees in dialogue and ask them questions so that they are forced to think about what has changed and how they need to adjust their behavior to be successful in the new reality?
Have you explicitly stated that how you perform your job is just as important as how well you perform? Do you communicate that it is no longer sufficient to be a great individual performer if the way you utilize systems and processes prevents others from excelling in their jobs?

[1] http://mba.yale.edu/faculty/profiles/vroom.shtml [2] http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_vroom_expectancy_theory.html [3] http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/cognitive_dissonance.htm

MOTIVATING USER ADOPTION: COMMITMENT, COMPLIANCE OR WIIFM?

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:42:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

Many organizations underestimate the critical impact employee motivation for adopting new technology has on IT system success. The prevailing attitude is that employees will have “no choice” but to use the system. The reality is that employees have many choices in user adoption. They decide if the are going to follow business rules, if they will keep information outside of the system (using personal Excel or Word files), when they enter/share data (do they enter data right away so others can use it or do they will wait for a more convenient time to share information), etc. Once you realize that each user has extensive choice in the manner, degree and time in which they use your system you can begin to focus on the more important issue – how do you motivate people to use the system in a way that delivers maximum benefits?

Many IT projects suffer from a lack of clear understanding of how to best motive desired user behavior. People often use terms like “carrots and sticks”, “ensure compliance”, moving people along the “commitment curve”, and “What’s In It For Me (WIIFM)”, but they typically do not understand the fundamental nature of these terms and their implications for motivating desired behavior.

Let’s take a quick look:

“Compliance” and “Sticks” In its essence, this is negative approach focused on maximizing fear and punishment. The underlying principle is, “if you don’t do what I say, you will suffer.” Compliance driven motivation is:

Based on consequences/punishment
Only effective with rigorous enforcement
Only works when people think you are watching
Only drives minimum effort required to meet minimum criteria – there is no incentive to go beyond bare minimum

“Commitment” Appealing to individuals’ commitment is a positive approach that taps into their internal drives and desires to achieve a shared goal. The underlying principle is, “if we all pull together we can achieve something great.” Commitment driven motivation:

Is based on desire to achieve a goal bigger than oneself
Is “Self Driving”
Works without external monitoring
Requires trust, relationship, shared values
Encourages people to give discretionary effort above bare minimum
Taps into individuals’ creativity to overcome obstacles and achieve goals

“What’s In It For Me” (WIIFM) WIIFM appeals to individuals’ self-interests without regard to achieving a larger shared goal. The underlying principle is, “If you do X you personally will get benefit Y – regardless of what others do.” WIIFM motivation:

Appeals to the selfish side of individuals
Requires you understand the individuals’ actual goals, motivations and priorities. Unfortunately, these vary from person to person and they change over time
Ceases to motivate once the individuals’ self interests are fulfilled or there is no perceived marginal value for providing additional discretionary effort
Encourages individuals to focus on their own interests and does not necessarily encourage them to work towards larger, enterprise goals

CONSIDER THIS

Achieving IT and organizational success requires people to work toward a common, shared goal. You should focus the majority of your effort on maximizing commitment of all employees to achieving that goal. Clearly demonstrate the link between the individuals’ technology adoption and how their behavior impacts goal achievement. While in some situations (such as when there specific legal requirements/regulations) you may need to clearly define minimum accepted system use, you should minimize your focus on compliance and WIIFM.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Do you focus on commitment, compliance, or WIIFM in your current IT efforts? How effective has it been on driving user adoption?
How do you increase employee commitment to achieving shared goals? What are the skills and tools needed to increase commitment?
Are your organizational leaders effective at motivating employees and driving commitment to organizational goals? If not, what can you do to develop your leaders’ skills and abilities in this area?
Have you clearly established the link between effective user adoption and its impact on achieving shared goals? Do people believe that their behavior/IT adoption has a meaningful impact on achieving shared goals?

DOES YOUR USER ADOPTION METHODOLOGY REMOVE ORGANIZATIONAL BARRIERS?

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:43:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

Many IT implementations suffer from poor user adoption because they did not take into account the barriers to user adoption that lie outside the users’ control. There are many organizational elements that if not addressed prevent people from using the system even if they want to do so. Barriers to adoption may include things like lack of time for learning new processes or attending meetings, competing workload or other items given priority by management, misaligned rewards & recognition metrics that penalize people for adopting the system, inappropriate access rights within the system, undefined or poorly defined processes, or technical deficiencies within the system. Poor data quality may also reduce adoption since ‘garbage-in, garbage-out’ makes system generate reports meaningless for decision-making purposes.

If we want to maximize user adoption, we need to take a comprehensive approach to identifying and removing barriers to adoption. Unfortunately, most traditional Change Management programs are focused on the initial go-live and they primarily involve providing training and communications. Traditional change approaches often ignore the critical aspect of removing adoption barriers. We need to move beyond traditional change management methodologies to take a more expansive approach to evolving the organization and drive user adoption over the long-term.

When examining barriers to adoption keep in mind:

Barriers to adoption may be different in each department or workgroup
Some barriers may touch multiple departments in your organization and thus require a coordinated cross-departmental approach to resolve
The users within each department are the people who can best identify the barriers the face, and thus you need to actively engage them in your process
Perception is reality when it comes to adoption barriers. You may need to address user perceptions as well as tangible barriers
New barriers may emerge over time, so you need to periodically review your organization to address any new barriers that may arise

CONSIDER THIS

Instead of employing a traditional Change Management methodology, use a more expansive User Adoption Methodology that identifies and removes barriers to adoption. Your user adoption program should begin long before go-live and continue well past the initial deployment in order to drive initial adoption and sustain it over the life of the system.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

What barriers to adoption prevent people from using your system? Who has the authority and ability to remove these barriers?
Does your change management approach adequately address existing and future barriers to adoption?
How can you better engage your users to get their help in identifying and removing barriers to adoption?
What are the unique barriers to adoption in each user department/workgroup?
How will removing adoption barriers affect the level of benefits realization & ROI from your IT investment?

THE MYTH OF USER RESISTANCE

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:44:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

Many people blame “user resistance” as the reason why their systems are not adopted. The prevailing attitude seems to be that if we provide adequate training and communication (often the extent of the “Change Management” effort), then it must be the users fault if the system is not used. I like to call this the “Train, then blame” approach to User Adoption. There is an implicit assumption that user choice is the sole factor affecting user adoption. However, when we look closer, we see that this is often not the case.

There may be many other reasons why your people might not be using your system, and in many cases it is not their users fault at all. For example:

Many times there are organizational barriers outside the users control that prevent them from adopting the system
Design disconnects between the technology, process and users prevent users from adopting the system
Conflicting priorities, misaligned reward systems, and the directives of immediate supervisors result in a situation of, “hoping for A, while rewarding B”
The Change Management and IT implementation methodology were inappropriate for driving user adoption
No action was taken after go-live to create and sustain full user adoption

CONSIDER THIS

Blaming poor user adoption on “User Resistance” may be convenient and it may shift the onus for taking action from you to the users, but it may not be accurate. There may be other factors causing your adoption problems and the responsibility for taking action may fall on YOU, not the users!

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

What factors outside of the users’ control would prevent them from adopting the system?
Have you adjusted reward & recognition criteria to reward people for adopting the system and penalize them for avoiding the system?
What are the reasons (other than the technology itself) that people did not adopt earlier systems? What did you do to address these issues?
Did you take appropriate action before, during, and after go-live to address user behavior and drive user adoption? How can you move beyond traditional “Change Management” efforts to drive desired user behavior over the long term?

THE BUSINESS CASE & USER ADOPTION

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:45:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

For major IT projects, many organizations require a formal business case in order to get funding and approval for the project. The business case typically covers an explanation of the technology, expected changes to the business, the total cost of ownership (TCO) and the expected Return on Investment (ROI). Despite all these efforts to make sure you are making a wise investment, many completed projects fail to realize the anticipated level of benefits and ROI. Why? Because most IT systems don’t actually get used sufficiently to deliver the value you expect.

One major cause for this is that most business cases assume 100% user adoption and ignore the impact low levels of adoption have on ROI. As you know, benefits are only realized if your people actually use the system consistently and effectively. Unless you currently have full and effective adoption of your existing systems, it is naïve to think that you will achieve 100% adoption of your new systems.

To account for less than perfect user adoption, you need to examine how different adoption levels affect your business case. If you find that the projected ROI no longer makes sense you can either scrap the project or determine what additional resources and effort is required to increase adoption to the point that it will deliver an acceptable ROI.

CONSIDER THIS

Require that all business cases include a weighting factor for anticipated level of user adoption. Consider the impact that low, average, and high levels of user adoption have on your anticipated TCO, ROI, and level of benefits realization when approving IT projects.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

What levels of user adoption do you have with your existing systems? Why would you expect different adoption levels with your new system?
Have you included funding and resources to drive and maintain user adoption after go-live? If not, what resources will you need to achieve required levels of adoption? What does including these resources in your business case do for your TCO and ROI forecasts?
If you could increase user adoption of your existing systems & processes such that you get more value from your current technology, would you still want to move forward with the new project? What can you do increase adoption of existing technology?

NEW YEARS RESOLUTION - FULL USER ADOPTION!

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:46:00 GMT

OBSERVATION

New year’s resolutions are easy to make, but hard to keep. If we resolve to lose weight, quit smoking, eat healthier, exercise more, or make some other change in our lives, it requires a lot of effort, dedication and hard work. The skills and effort it takes to keep a new year’s resolution are very similar to those required to drive and maintain effective user adoption of new technology and processes.

Much like new year’s resolutions, user adoption is all about behavior change. It requires that we stop doing certain things and start doing new ones. When we slip back in to old behaviors – or old ways of working – we need to decide if we want to abandon our resolution or if we want to acknowledge our slip-up and get back on track. When it comes to IT systems, you only get full value from your investment when it is actually used. Not only do you need to change your own behavior, every other person who is supposed to use the system needs to adjust their behavior as well.

CONSIDER THIS

This year, why not make a resolution to drive full and effective user adoption of your IT systems? If you are an end-user, make a resolution to change your own behavior. If you are a supervisor, manager or executive, resolve to lead your teams in a focused effort to drive and sustain user adoption throughout your organization.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Try approaching user adoption like a new years resolution:

What can you do to get your friends & coworkers to assist you in sticking with your resolution?
What 5 specific things can you do – starting today – to increase your adoption of technology?
What things do you need to start – and stop - doing in order to increase user adoption?
What will you do if you “Fall off the wagon”? Will you get back to adopting the technology or abandon your resolution?

User Adoption Insights from Tri Tuns

User Adoption Insight Over Margaritas

Update Your Business Case: Include the Hidden Costs of Cloud Computing

‘Set It and Forget It’ is a Recipe for IT Disaster

IF ONLY IT IMPLEMENTATIONS WERE JUST THIS EASY

CONSIDER THIS

WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

RELATED RESOURCES

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK

Is Your IT Systems a Dreamliner?

The 787 SHOWS US THAT NEW TECHNOLOGY BRINGS NEW RISKS

The 787 SHOWS US THAT NEW TECHNOLOGY BRINGS NEW RISKS

REPORTED

NEW RISKS & YOUR IT SYSTEM

CONSIDER THIS

WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU

HOW TO DO IT

FIND OUT IF YOUR PROJECT IS AT RISK

High Stakes Gamble: Many Organizations Bet on IT Success with only a 1 in 4 Chance of Winning

REPORTED

TRI TUNS VIEW

RECOMMENDATIONS

TRI TUNS CAN HELP

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Johnny Dangerously on Effective User Adoption Communications

Is the Grapevine Killing Your User Adoption Communications? Ensure Your Communications Are Accurate and Effective

Apply What You Learned: Carefully Manage All Communications & Beware of the Grapevine!

Best Practices & Key Questions

Related Resources

Tell us what you think

User Adoption Teams & Johnny From Airplane!

Johnny from Airplane! Teaches us About Effective User Adoption Teams Who do You Need on Your User Adoption Team?

Apply What You Learned: Building a Great User Adoption Team

Best Practices & Key Questions

Related Resources

Tell us what you think

User Adoption & Sharks with Laser Beams

Dr. Evil teaches us about defining Success How do you define Success?

Apply What You Learned: Define Success in terms of User Adoption & Benefits Realization

Best Practices & Key Questions

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What Can Warren Buffett Teach Us About User Adoption?

IN THE NEWS

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Creating ownership teams to instill User Adoption

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THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

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Help! I have no time to instill User Adoption.

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THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

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Retain User Adoption consultants beyond the initial contract to sustain ROI

OBSERVATION

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THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

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Don’t sell your employees on the system. Fulfill their needs!

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Book it! Scheduling User Adoption activities is a must to ensure long-term IT success.

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Design the right metrics to improve user adoption

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What’s wrong with my questions? How IT projects typically fail to ask questions pertinent to long-term user adoption.

Is the Grapevine Killing Your User Adoption Communications?

Ensure Your Communications Are Accurate and Effective

Johnny from Airplane! Teaches us About Effective User Adoption Teams

Who do You Need on Your User Adoption Team?

Dr. Evil teaches us about defining Success

How do you define Success?