Get Your Team to Use a New Tool l Hypothesis Department

@August 18, 2021

What are some DOA ways to get your team to start using a new tool?

When I help teams implement EnjoyHQ, we talk some about the tool, but most of this work is about learning how to think about how qualitative data moves around the org, how decisions get made, how team members can encourage their colleagues to use a new tool.

Assumptions that fail.

"Well they have been told they have to use it."
"Everyone is really nice and seems very interested!"
"We are doing a big group demo so everyone will know what we're doing."

These ways fail. I know, because I've believed all 3 would be surefire ways to force a change, introduce a new tool, change a workflow - and every time I've failed. Large group demos with the CEO saying "we're using this now" with colleagues who knew, liked, and trusted me - it didn't work.

Change initiatives (and introducing a new software tool into a workflow is indeed a change initiative!) that do not connect the change to the team members' individual goals fail. And when it "seems like" they shouldn't, it's all the more surprising.

Tactics that get outcomes.

Instead of a top-down decree, instead of relying on good will, instead of generic group introductions:

Build a core group of champions to understand the change (i.e. new tool, becoming more customer centric); this might involve discussing the problem and creating urgency around it for longer than we might expect. (I typically mention EnjoyHQ 10-15 times before we begin the implementation.)
Connect the change to the needs and goals of people using the tool.
Do it one person at a time. Don't have time to talk with everyone one on one? Talk with a few people and help them talk to others.

And also: expect the change initiative to take 5-10x longer than you expect, expect to need 5-10x more touchpoints than you expect.