Are your training efforts really hampering the successful adoption of the technology?

Customer organizations of all sizes invest in technology for one simple reason: because they believe it will help improve their businesses. Achieving these positive results, however, depends on successful adoption by users. It is only when adopted by the majority that technological capabilities will have a positive business impact.

Be careful, because there are many potential dangers that can derail adoption. Here are some key examples:

• Early stage buyer assessment efforts may focus on getting buy-in from the board or senior managers, but not the key practitioners who will be using the technology on a daily basis.
• An organization can take a ‘one size fits all’ approach to training, assuming that a specific approach – be it live training, e-learning, or some other modality – works best for everyone. participants rather than presenting a range of options. Pro tip: In 2021, users’ learning needs and preferences could change at any moment. It is best to offer them options if you are looking to encourage adoption.
• Perhaps the biggest mistake seen in recent times is overwhelming users with too much training rather than using targeted, targeted communications (which – by the way – are much more cost effective). We each have incredibly powerful, feature-rich, and sophisticated technology on our mobile devices. Do you remember the last time someone took mobile phone training?

These are just a few scenarios where poorly designed approaches can cause technology adoption to fail before it even begins. Volumes could be written about other common mistakes: missing measurable business goals, not engaging managers to drive organizational change, and letting IT goals (instead of business needs) be the catalyst for change.

The possibilities for low adoption are virtually endless. With so many possible missteps around change and adoption, how can businesses avoid critical mistakes?

Conquer end users

Successful education efforts should start by focusing on winning over end users. If real end users aren’t convinced that this product will be worth adopting and improve their day-to-day working lives, they won’t be using the technology – no matter how hard someone is in IT or how good it is. suite C might like it. They will simply continue to use what has worked for them in the past or find a workaround.

How is the new technology faster, better or more convenient than what was in place before? How will it provide less stress or more peace of mind to end users? How will it help them do their jobs better every time they use it? Selling the benefits to the end user is essential and helps to “season” the organization, making professionals more receptive to the training that will follow because they know it will ultimately benefit them.

Offer your workforce an assortment

It’s no surprise that in an organization made up of many different people, there are many different learning styles. Some people appreciate being able to interact with a real human while learning; others prefer to tackle learning on their own. Being able to support a multitude of learning styles is extremely important. However, many companies determine in advance what kind of learning will be available, without even asking their employees “Which style is right for you?” ”

It is a missed opportunity. Nowadays, there is an abundance of teaching and learning modalities, from comprehensive, self-paced e-learning courses to one-on-one instruction to helpful videos with quick tips on how to accomplish certain tasks. tasks. organizations should take a smorgasbord approach, where users can use the learning that is most meaningful to them. However, this training must be delivered in the proper dosage – more details below.

Resist the urge to “overtrain”

The only thing worse than “under-training” busy professionals on new technologies is “out-training” them. It may seem counterintuitive – how too much training can be a bad thing? It turns out that this can be detrimental in several ways. For starters, this usually requires taking most of someone’s work day away, taking them offline for several hours. Aside from the fact that executives are busy enough without wasting most of their day training, the simple truth is that very few people can maintain dedicated focus and attention during that period of time. After 25 minutes, most will check their phones and think about upcoming obligations.

Then there is the fact that different people within an organization have different responsibilities. In a law firm, for example, the functioning of a litigator is different from that of a lawyer specializing in contract law and that of a lawyer specializing in intellectual property. The key to successful training is to target only the tasks and workflows that help each of these characters perform better in their workflows. A good way to do this is to communicate more and train less.

Here’s what that means: In the normal course of chatting with your employees – perhaps in a weekly newsletter that is already coming out at a regular pace, or in regularly scheduled meetings that are already on people’s calendars – you can show them. capabilities of a platform and how it will benefit individuals as well as the organization as a whole. If you provide this level of communication over an extended period of time, it has the same effect as training – all without having to take people away from their workday and keep them captive for hours.

Let’s go back to the smartphone example for a moment: no one is “trained” on how to use the latest and greatest smartphone that comes out. This is because vendors have usually done a very thorough job up front to communicate the latest features to the target audience – so there is very little actual “training” that needs to take place.

organizations can take a similar approach, instilling a basic minimum level of competence in their users through communications. From there, they can make available the range of different training modalities to help different users explore the features most relevant to their tasks and workflows.

No time to stumble

There are many pitfalls that can frustrate technology adoption efforts in organizations, but in today’s hybrid workplace, where technology adoption and new ways of working are critical to the functioning of the business, it there is no room for tripping. The successful adoption of a new cloud-based messaging platform, document management system, time recording solution, or other technology could mean the difference between smooth browsing and continuous interference.

By winning over end users by clearly explaining to them the advantages of the new technology; provide a range of training options; Then by delivering training in the right format, at the right time, in the right dose, organizations can avoid the ‘training death’ that has long plagued technology initiatives within companies, and successfully unlock the benefits that training has to offer. technology offers.

Brian Jones, Senior Director of Customer Adoption, I manage