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    • Action plan

    Step 5 – Making it work for the team

    Medium effort

    High impact

    You might think the implementation is the easy bit but it’s actually the part of the software process where most businesses face challenges. New workplace technology can drive unexpected responses. It can create fear and resentment. If people feel they’re being forced to change a process they think is fine, they can fear that technology is leading to redundancies, or that new transparency will expose them in some way.

    The following steps will take you through the questions and tips to make sure you’ve anticipated as many human roadblocks as possible.

    • We’ve designed our action plans to be completed in the order of steps laid out and explained why each step is important
    • Customising your action plan lets you set your own completion dates, assign tasks to others and get notifications
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps while a tracking metric at the end will help you determine the long-term success of your effort
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available if you’d like to compete it offline
    What's involved? Ways to use this action plan Measuring impact
    1

    Understand your users. List the individuals and teams that will be affected by the new software. Think about how the change will affect them. What will it mean for their day-to-day work?

    Impact: medium

    Why will this help?

    A new technology won’t necessarily need to be used by everyone in the business. Starting by understanding your users will allow you to tailor your future messages to them. For this action plan you’ll need to use our team and tech tipsheet.

    2

    Prepare your message. How will you sell the new software to people? Some people won’t change unless you give them a compelling reason to do so.

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    Making it abundantly clear how the new technology will benefit this particular group of people is key to making adoption a long-term success. Early buy in and, if possible, positive expectation are key.

    3

    Schedule the training. Who will need to be trained on the new system? Will different teams need different levels of expertise? Will you have super-users training the rest of the team?

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    Whether they’ve used the particular technology before in another business, or something similar in yours, training is crucial for early adoption into their day-to-day activities and will make sure the business is getting its money’s worth.

    4

    Encourage uptake. Do you need to introduce incentives to encourage people to use the new system? For example, reward vouchers for those who input all their data fully in the first few weeks.

    Impact: medium

    Why will this help?

    Often, all it takes is a few super users to get the wider employee base using it effectively – both from showing the benefits and teaching others who find it harder to naturally use something like this.

    5

    Make sure it works. Have a clear plan for how you’ll move data from one system to the other, and how you’ll check whether it’s worked properly.

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    The last thing you want is for a new system to encounter difficulties once you’ve got everyone excited about using it. This planning will help integration requirements or issues associated with scaling up to multiple users.

    6

    Go live. Set a transition/launch date when it won’t matter so much if there’s a lot of disruption, for example, over a weekend or during a period when the business is quiet.

    Impact: medium

    Why will this help?

    As with anything new, give the new technology the best possible chance of success by launching at an optimum time. Making sure your team aren’t swamped with other tasks means due care and attention can be provided.

    What can I do with this Action Plan?

    Start this Action Plan

    Add some extra information to this plan and we’ll help you get it done.

    • We’ve designed our action plans to be completed in the order of steps laid out and explained why each step is important
    • Customising your action plan lets you set your own completion dates, assign tasks to others and get notifications
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps while a tracking metric at the end will help you determine the long-term success of your effort
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available if you’d like to compete it offline

    Download and print

    Get a printable template for this Action Plan, fill it in with some target dates, and share it with your team. Pin it on the wall where everyone can see it.

    Get the printable Action Plan

    Learning Groups

    We also run Learning Groups on these topics where you can join other leaders tackling the same challenges.

    Find a Learning Group

    How will I know if my action plan is working?

    Successul implementation

    A successful implementation will be fully resourced and empowered by your implementation team

    Why this metric?

    You're now at the point where a successful implementation is the yardstick of your hard work and prudent planning.

    How do I use this going forward?

    Continue to use the planning work here to reinforce what the technology has been brought in to do.