This is the second in a five part series. Start at the beginning here.  

TIMELESS INSIGHT

In the last blog I told you how I recently I came across a page of Mark Twain quotes and in reading them I realized that the insights and teachings of a man who died decades before modern information systems were even conceived may hold some of the greatest lessons for how to deliver successful technology adoption programs.   

So in this second installment of our look at Mark’s words in relation to assumptions and learning as they relate to IT user adoption programs. 

When examined in the context of various aspects of effective user adoption programs, Mark shows us some of the common mistakes and misplaced assumptions that often plague many IT projects.  

As I asked previously -- and will ask throughout this series -- how can you use Mark’s insights to deliver a more effective user adoption program?

USER ADOPTION ASSUMPTIONS, SKILLS, EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

Many people have opinions about how to drive effective user adoption, but far fewer have the experience, knowledge and ‘battle scars’ in successfully driving and sustaining adoption to truly be experts.  There are any many popular myths about user adoption that actually harm your user adoption efforts.  Some of our favorites include:

• assuming that communication & training is the only/best tool for driving user adoption
  
  
• telling people “what’s in it for me” (WIIFM)
  
  
• believing people will “have no choice” but to use the system

When you are considering all of the advice that is out there, ask yourself if the source truly has the right knowledge and experience to know that about which they speak.  

IN MARK TWAIN'S WORDS

• “If you hold a cat by the tail you learn things you cannot learn any other way.”
  
  
• “Education is the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty.”
  
  
• “Education consists mainly in what we have unlearned.”

Other Resources

None of us know what we don't know, but here are a few tools to help illuminate your situation:

• Take our free User Adoption Challenge to see what specific user adoption issues you face on your IT project.
  
  
• Read our free eBook on avoiding implementation failure (specifically CRM), and steps to achieve success.
  
  
• Read about a new way to define IT success.

Can Mark Twain Teach You Everything You Need To Know About IT User Adoption?

This is the first in a five part series. 

TIMELESS INSIGHT

Recently I stumbled on a page of Mark Twain quotes.  I realized that the insights and teachings of a man who died decades before modern information systems were even conceived may hold some of the greatest lessons for how to deliver successful technology adoption programs.   

While Mark, who never had a smart phone (a term I am sure would have amused him to no end), who never faced a full email inbox, who never Tweeted (is that really a verb?), and who would probably laugh at the notion of an online social community, had some of the keenest insight about the nature of man. 

Sadly, it is often a lack of understanding about the nature of man that leads many IT projects to plunge into great depths of despair and poor adoption.

Over the next few weeks, let’s take a look at Mark’s words in relation to IT user adoption programs. 

When examined in the context of various aspects of effective user adoption programs, Mark shows us some of the common mistakes and misplaced assumptions that often plague many IT projects.  

How can you use Mark’s insights to deliver a more effective user adoption program?

USER ADOPTION STRATEGY

When talking with new and prospective clients, one of the biggest problems we see is that people often believe they already know all of the specific challenges they need to overcome in order to deliver effective technology adoption.  

Given this, they believe that there is no need to spend time or money assessing the drivers or barriers of user adoption within their organization, much less devising an actionable strategy to move forward successfully.

Unfortunately, we have found – without exception – that there always critical items that are missed when you don’t investigate before your take action.  These issues typically take the form of either key factors that were missed or the form of faulty (unverified) assumptions that led to great mistakes and wasted time or resources later.

IN MARK TWAIN'S WORDS

Before you assume you don’t need a user adoption strategy, consider Mark’s words:

• “It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.”
  
  

• “Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.”
  
  

• “It is wiser to find out than to suppose.”
  
  

• “I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one.”

One of the smartest men of our time, Albert Einstein, defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Which, when it comes to IT investments begs the question of why so often people go through the usual motions to pull off an implementation only to “go live and go home” while still expecting this time it’ll be a better experience for everyone involved and this software will save zillions? But if you’re doing the same thing you’ve always done, how exactly will the results this time be different?

Crazy, right?

(Or maybe this is Einstein presciently explaining the often-reported and historically stagnant CRM failure rates of 50-75%? Just a thought.)

I work with IT effectiveness and user adoption specialists and what we hear from our clients are things like “oh, but this time it’ll be different because we’ll have more training”, or “this new software will change everything, it’s completely intuitive” or “it’s the cloud, so that’s different, right?” I hate to break it to you, but just like with all bad habits in life, they’re easy to stick to and hard to change. (More on this in a future blog entry.)

Or, as we heard recently, “It’s not the software that fails, it’s the fleshware.”

When it comes down to it, technology does – sometimes infuriatingly so – exactly what you ask it to do.

But when it comes to people, the ‘fleshware’, let me ask you this: when was the last time a group of people did exactly what you asked them to do? Especially when you were changing the way they’d been doing something for years?

Ay, there's the rub.

So now what? How do you rescue the resources you poured into the project and begin to create the value you were so sure you’d realize with this implementation, with this change? How do you stop beating your head against that Einstein quote and regain some sanity?

First, look at what the implementation project’s focus was, and what was the benchmark for ‘success’. Was it techno-centric and success was on-time and on-budget delivery? Or was it business-centric and success is the ongoing measurement and achievement of business/ROI goals?

Next, when the project began was there a holistic strategy focused on driving desired user behaviors and aligning all the organizational elements necessary to achieve business goals? Or was the strategy just to get to go-live and there wasn’t a plan for what happened after that?

Third, the only constant is change. What sort of plan is in place to manage the inevitable changes and unexpected issues that will arise? What kind of infrastructure is in place to identify and respond to gaps, threats, opportunities, issues and events? 

• Still have questions and need some ideas about how your specific project could be helped? Take our quick assessment quiz – free and private, I promise! – and get some insight into how you might break your organization’s Einstein-ian cycle.
  
  
• With the rate of CRM failure being still ridiculously high, how can you succeed? Check out our eBook on avoiding CRM Failure Zone.
  
  
• Are you spending more time and money that you need or want to on the non-value-add tasks administering your implementation change? Take a look at MyUserAdoptionPlan.com for a glimpse of our pre-loaded, customizable change management portal.

At the end of last month, Tri Tuns went to Cloud Slam ’12 in San Francisco where our CEO, Jason Whitehead, was invited to give a presentation about the newest challenges in cloud adoption: the users.  

As one might expect at a cloud conference, Cloud Slam ’12 leaned heavily toward the technical and many people were talking about the amazing changes and possibilities the cloud, now in its infancy, will bring. The conversational overtones were reminiscent of the early days of the Internet. 

Jason’s talk was one of the only “business-centric” presentations at a very “techno-centric” conference, and we were happy to offer an alternative perspective on the cloud and cloud adoption. While we were already thrilled to be invited, once there we found out after receiving consistently good ratings from the selection committee, Jason’s speaking proposal was chosen from more than 1,000 submissions! Thank you Cloudcor and Cloud Slam ’12 organizers, we were very pleased to be part of it.

In keeping with Tri Tuns’ focus on the people-side of system implementations, Jason was different from most of the other speakers who discussed urgent and emerging issues regarding the more technical aspects of the cloud.  Jason addressed the non-technical side of the cloud: the people using it. As we heard one person say, “It’s never the software that fails; it’s always the fleshware.”

Jason’s talk addressed how when it comes to the cloud, and migrating thereto, many of us do so because we think it’ll be that Holy Grail trifecta: better, faster, cheaper than what we’re doing right now. But low up-front costs (for the buyer), the often-blinding speed of change, and on-going updates and changes take their toll elsewhere….and in every direction: the vendors, the customers, the users.

What we see time and again is that the laser-focus on “better, faster, cheaper”, defining “success” within the narrow confines of technology (did it go-live on time and on budget?) and managing organizational change in the traditional ways leads to business failures that could have easily been avoided in the first place.  

Further, Jason outlined the inherent issues with traditional change management and its inability to accomplish business goals today. The old ways of “go live and go home” and “train and blame” just don’t work, especially in today’s workplace.

In essence, while the cloud has changed the game for vendors, clients and users, the cloud is also an excellent proxy for all the other technological changes organizations go through.

In today’s climate, with today’s workforce organizations must focus on behavior and performance management issues that can easily be addressed by effective user adoption programs requiring specific activities, deliverables and resources. Traditional change management just doesn’t do that. And at the end of the day, ROI will not be determined solely by “up time”. ROI is far more contingent on the people, the “fleshware”, involved.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• How is success defined for your implementation project? Help ensure you're focusing on the right things for business success by reading our new eBook.

• Do you know what your specific challenges are? How will user adoption impact your project? Take our free assessment to start finding out.

• How are you delivering IT change in your organization? Literally, what's the administrative mechanism? Are you trying to build your own? Checkout www.MyUserAdoptionPlan.com to see what pre-built, pre-loaded, customizable options exist.

• If you're wondering how your project is going, try out our free assessment. 

• Or, if you have questions about your unique situation, please drop us line.