Sep
10
What do we do when the adoption barrier to a system is the selfsame people for whose benefit the system is being implemented?
Let’s say that a CIO wants to implement a Web 2.0 system in his organization to help employees collaborate better among themselves. The technology to be used, the physical infrastructure etc are all the easier portions of the implementation process. Getting the target audience to adopt the system is verily the toughest part. Why?
Are (the majority of) people non-communicative? Are the users apprehensive of the new system? Or do they just treat a new initiative by the company as just another corporate gimmick?
Answers, as I learn them. Comments invited (duh!).
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Are the users apprehensive of the new system?
Positive. One of the first questions which would come from the End users would be “I’m better off with my existing solution. why would I need a new one?” Even if we explain the advantages of the new solution (say web 2.0 as in this case) they might still resist with an arguement – “Our business runs fine with existing system”. The attitude of people in business is to challenge a status-quo. The challenging starts right from proposal stage down to pre go-live end user training.
Besides, as one ages, their resistance to learn new things increases.
This phenomenon is called as “Resistance to Change”. Happens in all walks of life just not in Work environment alone
nobody (not many) wants to come out of their comfort zones. can’t really help…
Or do they just treat a new initiative by the company as just another corporate gimmick?
This could be the case if the organization attempted “many” such “initiatives” before in vain to implement an automated solution. This would be the case if
1) The employees are dis-satisfied with the organization. So any good initiatives will be received with skepticism.
2) The CxOs were stupid enough to try different solutions by trial & error without any baseline plan.
~A.k
PS: waiting to hear more from you on this as you learn!
New systems are normally thought of when there is a paradigm shift in the top management’s requirment of information flow.The top management can not expect employees to think in the same way as they do. So it is essential that the top management devote some time to make the employees understand the need to change. For example, the method of reporting the financial information of companies has undergone a sea change in the last decade and this is mainly driven by the need of the users of the information flow. Employees have to be told that MIS will continue to change and the best way to ensure that new systems are adapted by the employees is by ensuring their total particiaption in the process. THis can be achieved by explaining to them the underlying need for this change, by the top management. The need may be due to faster ( better) analysis of the information that is already available, highlighting some key results which were hitherto neglected or were not considered important or simply due to changes in the external envoronment.