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Implementing new software? Your team must climb these two mountains.

Picture of Andrew Parkes

If you are implementing a new tool for your team, there are two mountains for each person to climb:

The first mountain is for each person to regularly (daily) use the tool.

The second mountain is for that regular, daily usage to be best practices. 

Here’s what most often holds people back from climbing the first mountain:

Excuse Response
I don't have time to learn/use a new tool.

No one has time for things that aren’t important to them. If you make this new tool an important priority, it will ultimately save you time vs. the current way of doing things.

 
It's another place to look.

Yes but the current place to look is costing you time and effort. It may seem inefficient to look in two places vs one but ultimately, the total time will be less.

 

It’s faster for me to do it my way.

It’s faster for you but not faster for the team or better for the business. The team’s goal is not to do what’s fastest for you.

 

No one really cares if I don’t check the tool or don’t keep it updated.

Actually, there is an impact on the team if you don’t use this tool. The expectation is that you will use it properly.
(If the person isn’t using the tool, there should be a consequence.)

 

I’ll just wait until I am told or forced to use the tool.

It feels like you haven’t been convinced of why we are moving to this tool and how it will ultimately make your life easier. Let me show you.

 

________ (insert name of Senior Leader) isn’t using this tool so why should I?

This is a huge problem which needs to be fixed. If leadership isn’t promoting or using the tool, it sends a message to the rest of the team that it’s not a big deal if no one uses it.

Once the first mountain is climbed, we move onto the second mountain with the goal of turning each person into a Power User Evangelist who:

  • Consistently uses best practices
  • Teaches others and leads by example
  • Actively looks for or researches time saving tips / hacks in the tool
  • Is up-to-date on new features or enhancements
  • Puts more and more of their team’s workflows into the tool

Climbing mountains (especially two) is hard but ultimately, the team needs to ascend together in order to maximize the Return on Investment into new software tools.

How fast the team climbs each mountain depends on the weakest link.