The world is a different place to what it was a few years ago.

Every organisation is under pressure to be more competitive, do more with less, be more thoughtful of the environment when deploying resources, find and keep great people and ensure they’re safe, supported and productive no matter where they work from.

Technology is a means to an outcome

One of the ways that organisations are seeking to address these challenges is by using technology.  When it works, technology enables increased collaboration, efficiency, speed to market, accuracy, profitability and engagement. And who doesn't want those outcomes?

But many companies are being left behind, because despite providing access to new technology their people are not using these tools at all, or not to their fullest extent, leaving all those potential benefits unrealised.

The gap between expectations and reality is large

The last three years have seen the biggest change in the way we work since the Industrial Revolution. We are surrounded by new technologies in our private and working lives and coupled with the challenges of managing hybrid working and the drive for productivity, it’s little wonder 83% of workers report feeling overwhelmed, stressed and burnt out on a daily basis.

And while organisations have traditionally been good at obsessing over how to use technology to improve customer experiences, the application of technology to improve how employees manage and deliver their system of work has received far less scrutiny and support.

A Censuswide survey found nearly 20% of senior executives saw employee resistance to new technology, or the need to improve digital capabilities, as the biggest barrier to improving operational efficiency. And half these leaders believed over 50% of their workforce were NOT using communications and collaboration tools to their full extent.

With companies facing complex operational challenges and AI promising a further wave of disruption, it’s really important businesses make smart tech investments, get the most out of their existing technology and give their people the tools they need to succeed.

The pace of change is not slowing down

The urgency to integrate AI into business operations has surged dramatically according to Slack’s Workforce Index, with 96% of executives expressing a strong drive to adopt AI within the next 18 months.

Among knowledge workers who currently use AI tools, 81% report that it enhances their productivity. They also exhibit higher levels of employee engagement and work satisfaction compared to those who do not use AI.

However, there is a substantial gap between executive ambitions and actual AI usage among employees, despite the benefits. Australian knowledge workers in particular are VERY skeptical towards using AI, with a staggering 95% indicating they do not fully trust AI for work-related tasks.

The answer lies in people

Employees are people, and people adopt technology based on their own specific outlook.

You will likely have seen this chart before.

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The Technology Adoption Life Cycle was developed in 1962, it has a standard bell curve and the divisions are roughly equivalent to where standard deviations would fall. Each group of people represented here has a unique psychographic profile that makes their responses to technology different from those of the other groups.

Whether we’re paying for the new technology or our boss is, the way we react is the same. We’re either an enthusiast, who will rush to try anything new, a skeptic who’ll only use a new tool when they have no option, or somewhere in between.  

Crossing the technology adoption chasm

In 1991 Geoffrey Moore added “crossing the chasm” which refers to the challenge technology companies face when trying to transition from serving early adopters of their products to reaching a broader market of mainstream customers who are more skeptical and require more evidence of a technology’s value before adopting it.

This life cycle doesn't just relate to how tech products are purchased by consumers, it's also how they are adopted by users within an organisation, who typically - but not always - follow the same standard bell curve of distribution into different pyschographic profiles.

Here you’re not winning the mainstream market but winning over the majority of your users.

Here the team introducing the new technology, usually the IT team, have to ‘cross the chasm’ and learn how to persuade the entire organisation to adopt new technologies, and to do it rapidly.

Adoption takes work

Many technology adoption projects fail because organisations and their leaders aren’t very skilled at helping their people shift their mindsets. There’s a well-known statistic from McKinsey that 70% of organisational change efforts fail, and the primary reasons are lack of management support and employee buy-in.

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Always start with people, recommends change management expert Danielle Owen Whitford. Consider that most people don't use new tech because they prefer the comfort of the known over the discomfort of learning a new way of doing things, or they’re worried about looking foolish, or just don't have the capacity or headspace to even think about it.

Danielle suggests you can start changing how they feel by explaining purpose - why the new technology is being used and why it will help people, rather than starting with what the technology is and how it works. Simon Sinek explains this idea using a Golden Circle. If you communicate from the inside out, you’re talking to the part of the human brain that actually drives behavioural change - an important first step.

Good people leadership starts with good communication

Danielle compiled eight conversation guides for leaders to use with their teams, either in 1:1 situations or in teams. For example, she suggests checking understanding because everyone copes with change differently. You can create psychosocial safety by asking for feedback and ensuring you understand other perspectives. Ask questions like: “How comfortable are you with using this new tech?” or “What’s working well for your team today?” Seeking feedback is a way of modeling vulnerability. It also helps you understand ways you can improve your process or communication. All eight conversation guides can be found here.

Process and tools matter too

Jason Seam, a Principal Product Manager at Atlassian recommends using this Technology Adoption Guide for technology projects, which is a minor variation of Atlassian’s Cloud Adoption Guide.

Some of Jason’s tips include remembering change is hard, and overcoming resistance requires staying true to your success definition, then connecting people's resistance to the outcomes. You also need to understand use cases, because sometimes resistance is based on ignorance and if you sit down and help set up solutions for people they will adopt them...Oh, Jason also mentioned the benefit of pretty table views in Jira as a way to engage some teams in the organisation - don’t underestimate the power of visual persuasion!

This is Jason’s guide to technology adoption programs:

1. Learn as much as you can about the problem space
2. Build a team of SMEs
3. Set your vision/start with why
4. Define success
5. Ideate solutions
6. Scope the solution/s
7. Training and support plan
8. Comms plan
9. Identify Champions
10. Ship it!
11. Monitor & engage

Atlassian has tools specifically designed to support technology adoption and Jason recommends using a mixture of Jira and Confluence to manage your technology adoption program. Here’s when to use them:

1) Learn the problem space

2) Build a team of SMEs

3) Set your vision

4) Define success: Goals in Jira

5) Ideate solutions: Whiteboards in Confluence

6) Scope the solution(s): Confluence/Jira

7)Training and support plan: Page templates in Confluence

8) Comms plan: Page templates in Confluence

9) Identify Champions

10) Ship It!: Jira

11) Monitor & Engage: Calendar, Roadmap, Plans in Jira

Common challenges to avoid

Some of the common reasons projects fail are lack of a Program Sponsor (major leader) to sponsor the change, poorly defined goals, rollout isn’t targeted or phased, insufficient SMEs / doing it all by yourself, inadequate scoping against goals, use cases and cost; unclear scope, poor communication and not addressing resistance by users.

ServiceRocket can help

We’re currently offering a Free Pulse Check with Pioneera and Service Rocket. Think of it as a discovery session to help you understand:

• Where are you now
• How your technology implementation is tracking
• What the future could look like.

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If you’re interested, please reach out to carolyn.allen@servicerocket.com and we’ll find a suitable time.