Your thoughts? Educating and involving users... One of the main factors to consider when implementing new tech.

Any thoughts or (best) practices you can share regarding the below?

Educating and involving users... One of the main factors to consider to increase your chances of success when it comes to the adoption of new (cloud based) technology. Let me share some of my thoughts and past experiences.

Shifting to a new platform can confusing for users. People tend to stick to what they know and change is often seen as a bad or scary thing. “we’ve always done it like this, it works great, why change?”, “this all looks so different from what I was used to, I’m not sure I will be able to get as much work done”, or something to that extend is what you’ll often hear, with an exception here and there, of course. I think we’re just programmed like that.

When things are about to chance it helps to think about how you will “guide” and educate your users about what’s coming, what’s new, and most importantly, why the company choose to take this route. This often has to do with getting rid of legacy technology, making the platform more future proof, secure, and eventually easier to work with. Of course, that’s not how most of your users will see it, unless you explain it to them.

Think about training programs, explaining new ways of work, perhaps there will be new types of applications involved, a new way of logging into their systems in the morning, an interface they are not used to, etc. Try to focus on, or at least underline what’s in it for them, and how eventually it will make their lives easier and more efficient.

The sooner you involve your users, the greater the acceptance-rate will be. Imagine having worked on building a new platform for months, including all the internal process and reviews that come with it, and than, BANG, here you go, as of now this how we do work. I can assure you that the adoption rate will be quite low.

When users are involved early and are asked for their opinion and feedback, they feel like they have a say in how things will turn out, which is (partly) true of course. Organize sessions to explain some of the above topics so they know what is coming. Ask for their thoughts on the matter and what they think, do they have any suggestions, compared to how they work currently what do they like or needs improving, that type of thing.

You could argue that the above, especially the part where you examine your current platform / infrastructure and the way users go about their daily routines should always be a part of any preparation phase when thinking about shifting to a new way of working. It’s probably where you’ll find answers to some of the most important questions when it comes to what do we need to improve and what has worked well over the years.

I wouldn’t say there is a “golden” approach or single way of doing things since every company is different and not all topics mentioned might play a role necessarily (the list is also far from complete), but I think that getting your users involved (early) is crucial to any successful virtual desktop implementation. 

What do you see (or do) in practice?