Collisions of Change

Photo by Sarah Ziegler

I have been in the midst of several small changes recently. I have a new position at work with new responsibilities, I have realized the beauty of using a task oriented system to keep me organized, and I have gotten back to reading both for pleasure and for growing my mind.

These last two items are colliding in a great and spectacular way. Well maybe that is a little bit of an exaggeration....  What I mean is that with my reading, I have found that taking notes has done me wonders in helping me think through the thoughts that come up while I read them. And my method of taking these notes have caused them to start showing up in my task management system. My intention is to share these notes on my blog as a form of #workingoutloud (ala +Bryce Williams and +John Stepper of +Change Agents Worldwide ).  

The goal is that if I share these out loud, others might learn from what I see within the text and what I see beyond the text.  Hope you enjoy the series.

-eric

Incent to Share

Photo by Eric Ziegler

Your company doesn't share information.

There are silos in your organization.

Each silo is not interested in helping the other silos.

Enterprise Social tools are integrated into business tools

Enterprise Social tools are still not being used.

Why is it not working?

Culture culture culture.

Technology is not what wins the battle, change and culture, that's what's needed .

Find the incentives for people to share.

The 1 v. 9 Rule

Gettysburg Battle Field Monument
Photo by Eric Ziegler

Have you ever implemented a technology for an enterprise that had the chicken and egg syndrome?  You know the type.  You implement a valuable technology but no one is using the technology. As you analyze why this might happen, you realize that you need people to use the tool, but the value is not there until you have a large number of people using the tool.  Which should come first?  The people or the tool?  How do you get people to change behavior, adopt a tool, adapt the way they work when you realize that to really have change, you need a large number of people to change almost all at once?

I have seen this situation more than once. You have a small set of people dispersed throughout the enterprise that is interested in the technology. You think you have won the battle because interest is high from these advocates.  But if you peel away the edges, you would see that while they are excited and are some of the biggest advocates for the technology and while they each represent a team that could use the technology to great effectiveness and the technology has potential to realize get value within the team, there is an issue. 

This is a big issue.  The rest of the team is not aware of the value, they don't see the need for the tool and they provide every excuse under the sun for why not to use the tool. I like to call this the 1 vs 9 rule.  You have one person that is ready and eager to adopt, adapt, and use the technology but you have 9 people (2 through 10) that are not.  More often than not, this is one of the biggest reasons a technology like this fails.  It is not about the implementation of the technology, it is about the change management.

As the person in charge of the technology and responsible for enterprise adoption and change management related to the technology, what do you do?  This is not a time to give up and fail.  What techniques could you use to get #2 through #10 to adopt the tool along side of #1.  

Here are some ideas.

1. You are not alone:  Seems simple enough but this is often the first step that people forget.  You need to get the advocates, the 1's, to help in driving the adoption of their team. One team at a time. While you are responsible for change management and adoption, you are not alone.  The #1's need to know what is expected of them and need to know that it will not be easy.  
2. Build a play book: Now that you have set the expectation you need to provide the techniques and tools that the #1s will use to get 2 through 10 engaged. Depending on the technology being implemented, these tips and techniques could include having them set expectations to the team, have them get their own advocates within the team, and have them remind (nag or ankle bite) the team periodically.
3. Lower management:  Work with the first line of management of that team. Get them to understand where the value is and then get them to help drive adoption within the team.  Have them set expectations for their team, but don't let them mandate, that type of technique could backfire.  Do this in conjunction with the advocate of the technology. They can help sell the story.

The hope is that you can do this over and over again with each group until you have critical mass in the enterprise using the technology effectively. Think of the first group as the keystone, that the rest can use as an example or template of how to drive adoption in their teams.

While I write these words into this blog, I know that I have not done justice to all of the ideas others have used to drive adoption of 2 through 10.  What techniques, tricks, and methods do you use to drive this type of adoption?  What has worked for you?

Perceived Value

Image: from Tim Scullin blog

The other day I was in Disney with my family.  It was great fun, we did almost all of our favorite rides, Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain, Pirate's of the Carribean.   Unfortunately we missed out on going on Splash Mountain as it barely got to 60 degrees and we were not brave enough to risk getting wet and being cold.

What I found so interesting as we walked around the park is how quickly some of the lines grew (of course spring break has that effect).  The thing that was so interesting was that they were not the rides that I would have chosen - which was great for us. That got me to asking the question, why do some rides have longer lines faster than other lines.  I believe that one of the reasons is that every person places their own value on each ride.  Some people valued the rides like Winnie the Pooh, while others valued Haunted Mansion, some liked Dumbo while others valued Thunder Mountain.  Each person places their own value on each ride and decides which ones they want to ride first, which rides they are most willing to wait in a long line for, and which rides they just won't ride that day.

This got me to thinking about how employees adopt different technologies, tools and techniques based on the value they perceive they will provide.  For example, I can apply this to the work that I am doing related to driving adoption of activity streams (btw, this is just one example of a large variety of technologies).  As I talk with employees about how they might use an activity stream, some say that it seems just like email and they wonder (aloud sometimes) what value the activity stream provides beyond email.   Some employees never see any value in using an activity stream.  Some know that moving away from email is valuable in some situations, but don't know if the activity stream is the best method.  Some believe a RSS feed aggregator or other technologies are better. Others, thankfully, understand the value right away, but when they start to use the new tool, they find that no one else is using it, which diminishes the value for this individual.

So how do you get people to use the new technology, the new tool, or technique?   There are many ways, and you need to use them all.  Going back to Disney, they use many different methods to entice you to ride their rides (and even to come to Disney World). One of their methods is to nudge people to ride the next ride.  Enterprise can use similar techniques to attract employees to use the new "stuff".

When a nudge is provided, typically the goal is to increase the value that the employees sees in the new tool, or technique or technology.  Or said a different way, the employee's perceived value of the tool needs to increase.  Disney World uses many techniques to nudge people to ride each of their rides.  Most Disney World rides use great visual effects on the outside of the ride.   For example, as you walk into the Haunted Mansion, the people are in character, giving you the "eye" and the line leading into the ride has grave stones with funny things written on them and book shelves that have books that move in and out.   They attract you to the ride using over the top decorations such as the carriage with a ghost horse.

Following the Disney World example, enterprises need to use techniques to get employee to change and use the new "stuff".  To drive this the employee perceived value of that tool, technique or technology must increase. If that does not happen, they won't ever use the new "stuff".  Unfortunately, as you have probably guessed, this is the most difficult part of driving adoption of technology, but it is also the most rewarding.

Serving, its that simple

Flickr photo by Ed Yourdon

Recently, I have been trying to determine when I am most successful in what I do - being a dad, a husband, changing things at work, implementing tools successful, etc.  I have seen several patterns, but didn't really put anything together until I was listening to a podcast from Entreleadership on sale (the one that +Chris LoCurto interviews +Lisa McLeod).  There is a piece in the middle of the interview where Lisa talks about why a specific drug rep is so successful.  Very powerful.  


So what is the pattern that I saw in myself but realized only after listening to this specific podcast episode?  It is all about serving, and knowing who you are serving and the purpose of your serving.  


My belief is that if you don't understand that you are serving and the purpose of that serving, than you are only moving around in an aimless direction and not really satisfying what is most important (in your life, for your company, for your family, etc.)