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.

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?

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?

1. Assess the situation for your user

2. Develop a plan accordingly

3. Assign someone responsibility for executing that plan

4. 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.

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

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