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
- 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?
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”