Where Tech Adoption Goes Wrong
It can be very frustrating when you implemented technology with the promise of increased productivity and efficiency; however, staff and even yourself continue to rely on the tried and true methods. You feel like there’s a better way of implementing new tech or even utilizing the current technology that you have today. Of course, there is a better way, but it does involve a little more work. This article intends to walk you through the change management process of implementing new technology to your company or better-utilizing technology that you have today.
The Place For IT Strategy
Strategy is the critical difference between those that see the impact that technology promises and those who waste a lot of time and money. We have found many companies are ad hoc in their process of picking new applications and programs. Often, an immediate business needs to be identified and a quick search of solutions with an equally short implementation schedule. It can be challenging to stop and slow down before identifying solutions and implementing them. Part of the reason is there’s such an immediate return in finding a solution; they get people excited. Unfortunately, what often happens is that over some time, likely a short period, reliance on the tried and true process occurs as frustrations with the new application build. Preliminary analysis will assist you in making better decisions. Better is what is best for your company and happens through a formal needs analysis. You need to know what problem you’re trying to solve, how it meets your organizational goals, and what specific features are essential to your organization’s technology. This will allow you to properly scope options, lead you to better-prepared product demos, vendor interviews, and answer questions that others may ask about the project. Going through a needs analysis can also help you identify if the current solution you have in place meets your needs and if something can be down about that does not include complete out a replacement. Chasing the shiny new thing is fun, but being methodical will prevent you from being brunt.
How to Manage the Change That Tech Can Bring
Buy-in is critical to any change management process. It has to be evident that ownership, partnership, or executives support the need for change and are vocal advocates for finding a solution. Buy-in increases when the organization and its executives are transparent about the process and adopt it themselves, lead by example. If employees or staff see that ownership or partnership doesn’t care or there is a misalignment in the purpose of the technology, potential adoption can drop. For example, in our experience, acceptance of CRM relies on the adoption by management. We find things go sideways when management does not use the tech themselves or misused to monitor time and activity instead of tracking progress and storing customer information. Change management also means listening to your staff about what is not working and why and collaborating for solutions. If there is something not working with the CRM, it should be investigated; again, transparency is crucial here. Walk through the process of investigating concerns with those who bring them up and work together to find solutions. It is also helpful to identify early adopters and have them be vocal advocates. Let them be the go-to people for other staff to ask questions on how-tos and best practices.
Training is a required component in the change management process. Unfortunately, too often find training to be canned, causing participants to drift off and not pay attention. Which, to be honest, is not their fault. To reduce staff boredom or lack of engagement, we find it helpful to group your workers by experience level. Create a baseline knowledge you want everyone to have and train up to that baseline. That means that if there’s a group that is already very familiar with the technology or the tool, you creating a shorter training program reclass for them. And if there’s a less familiar group, you make more frequent training to train them up to the level required. This limits training that is too overwhelming for people who are less familiar with the technology. You avoid training that is too repetitive for those who already know how to use the tech. Our best practice is to make training engaging and custom. Canned training really reduces the adoption when compared to customized group segmented training.
We also find that a program or application is deployed, some training is delivered, and then it just stops. What we find works better is a continued conversation regarding the tool—sharing the results and the impact the technology had on the organization. We encourage continual sharing of best practices, tips, and tricks. And promote a dialogue that includes what’s working well and what’s not.
Finally, you can create a policy that mandates use. We recommend not to only rely on the policy but move through all the above recommendations first. Ultimately there will be those who will resist change, and you as an organization can decide what line you want to draw to enforce its use.
solūt can help in a variety of different ways. We can help complete needs assessments and analyses to help identify what’s available in the marketplace. We can review what you currently use and how it matches your needs. We can deploy and implement solutions. We can organize and, in some cases, actually perform the training. We can create policies to help with the enforcement of its use. If you’re curious or would like our assistance, get in touch with us – we’re more than help happy to help.