Important Adoption Question

[NateBa]

Hey all, I've got a customer with an important question, and I'd love your feedback on this one: When you've got the leadership and PMs who are really excited about Workfront, and the visibility it provides... but the rest of the department won't use it because they see it as "additional work" or "additional management oversight" what do you do to get them on board? Any advice? Have you struggled with something similar? What did you do? -Nate Bagley --- Workfront Community Manager - Work Smart, Work Happy Message me directly at:

[EricLu2]

Hi: My tuppence worth: It is all about perceived value. If people don’t’ see the value, they frequently present red-herring excuses for not using it. Calm, patient persistence and candid discussions may reveal they simply don’t understand the value. People will generally fall into these categories: 1) They see the software in use, look at the reports, look at the repository, etc, and they say, oh, yeah, I get it, neat. These get on board and are happy customers; 2) They see it all and say, no, I like using my post-it notes, I don’t want to change. These challenges must be managed by someone with some authority. If using WorkFront is a requirement, they need to know using WorkFront is now part of their job responsibilities and we’re counting on them to be part of the team and work in WorkFront. Using legitimate authority is a last option sort of thing, but sometimes people need to know we’re not kidding, we really need you to use WorkFront; 3) They see it and say, nice, but what I really need is to have these other problems solved. These have needs and do not recognize WorkFront can satisfy those needs. This is a training opportunity, and an opportunity to add reports, and whatever they need; 4) They see it and say, that is too much work for me, I’d rather use Excel. If this kind of objection turns out to be based on a dread of learning new technology, then you might have to do 1:1 side by side at-desk coaching/training. You might have to show them how to do things. Everyone does not learn through the same process, you might consider conducting training using a different approach for those that don’t learn the way you want to teach; 5) For lackadaisical reticent objectors, you can provide positive incentives. $10 Starbucks gift card to users who get their timesheet submitted by 5PM Friday. Reward positive behavior that includes using WorkFront. Continue to reinforce the value proposition. Changing people’s attitudes and changing their work processes take time. Motivation to change is essential and they don’t have it, find out why and address it. Does this help? Eric

[BrookeVa]

Are the users not wanting to use Workfront because their workload is housed elsewhere? It's important to make the transition between systems smooth by making sure that ALL employees have what they need in Workfront and not scattered throughout multiple systems. Roll out new features/functions in phases instead of dumping it all on everyone at once. In order to get everyone in the company excited about Workfront and what it offers, we had competitions. For example, we'd send out emails saying the first person to update their "about me" in Workfront gets a gift card, or the first person to update a status gets free lunch, etc. Make it exciting. Most employees think it's additional work if it's not clear on how to use the system. We also created "How Do I..." documents that walk specific types of users through how to do certain things in Workfront and we have the project/documents favorited so that everyone can easily go back and reference the documents. Hope this helps, Brooke

[DavidCo3]

As Eric said, it pretty much comes down to WIIFM ( W hat's I n I t F or M e?) For Work users who perhaps don't like the additional scrutiny it provides management, I try to turn it around and get them to see it as something to help them. e.g.: You have a single task list that is transparent to everyone....nobody can expect you're doing something that's not on the list. If someone wants you to do something else, it is easier to review other demands and prioritise. We can help get rid of inefficient and repetitive tasks through improving your workflow (e.g. reducing emails and paper chasing) You can contribute to improving processes and making your role better by recording issues and ideas for continual improvement. Build a report that gives them an insight that they never had before.

[LauraRa1]

Ditto both Eric and David We’re still in the throes of on-boarding for some people in our 100+ users department! 1. You have to be more persistent than you’ve ever been before. 2. You have to be more creative than you’ve ever been before 3. Make it fun, run some competitions 4. Associate Workfront with ‘happy times’ 5. You can’t beat good ole fashioned face to face training/help with users. I run my admin reports every 2-3 weeks and walk around to every user to explain what they’ve been doing wrong, what they need to change/do better and why. 6. Bribe with chocolate - I have boxes and boxes of Lion Bars which I give out when someone provides me with a tip that I can send out, attends my Workfront Surgery, and more recently we’ve just started to work on the ‘Adoption Dashboard’ from http://store.atappstore.comhttp://store.atappstore.com/product/workfront-snapshot. We plan to offer rewards based on this dashboard showing how well a user is doing in Workfront 7. The more people you get on board, the more you squeeze out the reluctant ones and force them to follow suit. At the end of the day it’s much easier if a command comes from the top to ‘USE WORKFRONT OR ELSE’ or a little more creatively, if its added to all users HR objectives! Laura Ray Project Support Analyst Bakkavor Information Systems Bakkavor Group West Marsh Road, Spalding, Lincolnshire, PE11 2BB, UK Direct: +44 (0)1775 763 010 www.Bakkavor.com // Laura.Ray@Bakkavor.com< [cid:image003.png@01D24727.3C928E60]

[RobertGo]

Please excuse me for jumping in without me reading all others' comments first. Our adoption didn't take off until 1) we had several "come to Workfront" meetings with IS managers where we in no uncertain terms learned how much the CIO was behind it and needed the resource information it provides, and 2) we scheduled formal, instructor-led, training sessions. Our first attempts at introducing Workfront organically, that is via small teams, train the trainer, word of mouth, elbow to elbow training and coaching, and lots of self-directed, self-help widgets were not providing enough traction. Moving to the new in-person, management-affirmed, and sit-you-seat-down-and-learn-this-stuff approach, really rescued what may have been a disappointment.