User Adoption Insights From Tri Tuns

Is Your IT Systems a Dreamliner?

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. 

Contact us to learn what we can do for you.



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

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

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?

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       
      • Do you have people who can look at things differently and find creative solutions on your team  If not, how would your team be more effective if they had more diversity? 
      • Do you have a "Johnny" on your User Adoption team?  Do they help or hurt your team?  If they are not add value to your team, why not?  What action do you need to take to improve your team?
  • Have clear leaders and experts in User Adoption on your team         
      • Do you have a "Rex Kramer" on your User Adoption team? Is this person an expert in User Adoption and have the leadership skills to guide you through a tough patch?   If you don't have a full-time Rex Kramer, do you have access to a Rex Kramer that you can call on in when needed?
      • If you don't have a Rex Kramer, how will you get one?  Will you hire one?  Is there someone in your organization that can learn to be User Adoption subject matter expert? 


Related Resources


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.

Johnny Dangerously on Effective User Adoption Communications


 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:
      • Create a solid infrastructure for ensuring effective 2-way communications.
      • Define a communication strategy for each phase of your project.
      • Assign specific roles and responsibilities for all aspects of your communication program.
      • Provide for as much active engagement and participation of stakeholders in communication activities as possible.  
  • Beware of the Grapevine!
      • Take steps to ensure that all stakeholders have easy access to accurate and timely communications.   Don't let rumors or inaccurate information sabotage your communication efforts.
      • Ensure communications continue over the life of your system.  Many organizations stop communications once the system goes live, at which point the grapevine takes over.  You need on-going communication efforts to make sure new stakeholders receive accurate information and to respond to evolving communication needs.
      • Proactively ask people what they are hearing on the grapevine and then respond as necessary to squash rumors and inaccurate information.
  • 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

  • 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.

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

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!




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.  
      • Did Dr. Evil set SMART goals when he asked for sharks with frickin laser beams? 
      • Do you set SMART User Adoption goals for your IT systems?
  • Acknowledge when you encounter an "It's a start" moment with user adoption, but still hold people accountable for achieving results.  
      • Did Dr. Evil hold people accountable when they only delivered sea bass when the requirement was sharks with laser beams?  What would  you do?  
      • Do you hold people accountable for hitting User Adoption goals, or are you OK with sea bass?


Related Resources

  • 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?

Warren BuffettIN 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

Creating ownership teams to instill User Adoption

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:

Help! I have no time to instill User Adoption.

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:

Retain User Adoption consultants beyond the initial contract to sustain ROI

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:
  1. 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. 
  2. 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.
  3. 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:

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

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:

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