Although it seems more and more teams are looking to digitize their processes, many teams continue to face common struggles when making this transition. Gaining traction for initial adoption, understanding if you are on track with that adoption, and sustaining momentum are just a few obstacles that teams may see along their journey. We have compiled a few tips to help make this transition more successful.
Set clear goals and measure progress
Too often, we set out to implement something new without setting clear goals that we are trying to achieve. This includes our overall “why” behind the implementation in the first place. Is this going to reduce the amount of time you spend in meetings? Will this promote more collaboration? Understanding the goals will allow the team to stay focused and be on the same page about what they are trying to achieve.
As those overall goals are set, it is also essential to set interim goals. If your goal is to increase collaboration, maybe your first interim goal can be to have four people contributing to the plan each week. Then, it can expand to an additional four as a potential next goal. Eventually, the team can reach the overall number they are targeting. This allows the team to see and measure progress as it is being made, which is important to sustaining momentum and keeping the motivation high.
Touchplan allows you to see team usage immediately on an easy-to-read dashboard.
Take something off the team’s plate
Let’s face it; our teams are already incredibly busy without needing to learn and implement new software on top of it all. Teams often see a new software or process as something additional to what they are already doing. If they already feel like there is not enough time, then the likelihood that they will try something new is low. We need to make sure that we are correctly setting our teams up for success. This includes helping them understand how this process or software will save them time and effort. Are we shifting a process into a digital format? How much time will that save them? Making it clear that you are replacing a given process with a more efficient one is important to show that you are not piling on additional work.
We also need to remember that, at first, a new process will take longer than it is intended because the team needs to build their competence. Make sure everyone accounts for that. We don’t want the team to lose confidence and momentum because it looks to be taking longer than expected.
Make things easy for them to do it
This one is easier said than done, but the easier something is for people to do, the more likely they will adopt it. If there are too many steps to follow or buttons to click, it can immediately detract from any potential benefits that the team will see. If we can lessen perceived “friction” that people feel while doing something, it can help them adopt the new process into a better habit faster.
For example, many teams jumping into Touchplan for the first time are often new to collaboratively planning with everyone involved. This may mean that they are not used to thinking through their activities, talking through what they need from someone else, or even being able to access the plan. With Touchplan’s easy-to-use interface and mobile capabilities, the barrier to entry is much lower for teams, and they find it easier to quickly pop open their phone to check and status their work. As the teams go through this process, again and again, it easily becomes second nature.
These tips can help and can have a significant impact on the success of the transition and on the momentum to sustain it after the initial launch.
If you would like to learn more about the value of a digital planning solution please watch our recent webinar with LCI.
