Influence culture to drive user adoption.

This article was originally published on Tri Tuns Blog.

OBSERVATION
People often talk about corporate culture but they really don’t know how to sufficiently explain / define it, how to influence it, or how it can influence an IT project implementation. You may have tried to define what the culture of your client’s organization is today, but have you given thought to the readiness of your client’s organization to accept a new technology? You should, as this readiness is a key influencing aspect of your culture, and will influence the adoption of the technology you are implementing (User Adoption).

Low adoption of the technology will keep the organization from getting the most value out of its investment. Without driving adoption, you might see:
• Limited usage of the new technology
• Users expressing frustration and difficulty with the new system
• Poor performance results at the individual and division level

Let’s think about the technology implementation for your client. You may encounter resistance to the new technology. In an effort to increase the readiness of accepting new technology we can measure culture and increase user adoption. There are four main areas to consider when assessing culture:
1. Leadership: Do leaders promote and support the new technology?
2. Processes: Are there multiple or conflicting processes in the way?
3. Training: Are staff properly trained, including and beyond technical training?
4. Project overload: Are there simultaneous projects competing for end-users’ time and attention?

Assessing and acting upon these 4 main areas will get you started to increase the organization’s readiness to accept new technology, which in turn will drive user adoption.

CONSIDER THIS
If your client’s technology is great but the level of readiness to apply the technology is low, you will not see much user adoption. In the below diagram, one can see a direct correlation between organizational readiness and end-user adoption. Your goal is to focus on increasing readiness by utilizing and acting on the assessment criteria stated above. This will put you on the way to creating a culture of increased readiness and improved user adoption, the goal for any technology implementation.



THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
Have you thought about user readiness for new technology when trying to assess the culture of an organization?

RELATED RESOURCES
Check out these other resources for more information related to this topic:

• Take the Tri Tuns User Adoption Challenge – a free online assessment tool
• Read: “Accelerating User Adoption”
• Read: “Motivating User Adoption: Commitment, Compliance Or Wiifm?”