Social Business strategist, podcaster, blogger, founder of Social Connections and conference speaker
Michael Sampson has just published the results of this year’s IBM Connections usage survey: 
A couple of months ago I kicked off a global survey on the use and adoption of IBM Connections. The survey garnered 58 valid responses, and the results are finally available.
They are really fascinating results and statistics, and it’s going to take a while to digest them!
You can download the report directly from Michael’s site.
Apologies for the delay, but here’s the deck for my session from IBM Connect 2014:
As those that have seen me present will probably vouch, my slides are almost bullet-free, are very graphical and there isn’t a huge amount of text, so it’s all in the delivery! Therefore the deck on it’s own may lack a bit of zing… I’ll rectify that by uploading a version of the presentation with audio very soon. Look out for an update in the next week or so.
A topic close to my heart…
Dennis Pearce of Information Week:
The last piece of the puzzle is how to turn a theoretical model like this into a practical analysis tool to help guide your adoption strategy. The first step we took at my company was to simplify the model to get a more focused communication plan. Since the goal is to jump the chasm and gain critical mass, in practice there are really only three groups to worry about:
- The Early Adopters (which combines both early adopters and innovators), who mainly need to understand the available features so they can explore what can be done with them;
- The Massive Middle (early majority and late majority), who need some confidence that this new concept is not a fly-by-night fad and will actually enhance productivity; and
- The Laggards, who won’t adopt until they are forced to do so.
If you look closely at the chart above, you will notice an S-shaped curve in addition to the normal bell curve. That S-curve is the sum total of your adopters as your organization progresses along the adoption curve. You can use this curve to help you determine when it’s time to switch tactics.
I really like the graph above. There are a lot of different methods of planning, modelling and measuring user adoption of Social Business systems. One of the greatest challenges is to be realistic in terms of the adoption culture of an organisation and its users. No matter how fantastic the technology is, or how persuasive your communication and adoption strategies, users will always embrace new working practices at different speeds and with differing levels of enthusiasm and commitment. This chart models that well.
Also:
Your organization will need to ask itself two questions: How do we define adoption, and what adoption percentage is considered a success? In our case, our goal of creating an organization that works out loud drives the answers to both questions. We want to track participation — not just logging in and viewing — and we want to strive for 100% adoption.
Good advice… How do you define (and measure) adoption, and what are your criteria for success and/or failure? Lots to be thought through before you ever think about technology or solution specifics…
[Dennis is an Enterprise Knowledge Architect for Lexmark International, Inc. – his series on Information Week is worth reading and following]
The big news today is that IBM Connections 4.0 is now available. However, whether you’re running Connections 3 or 4, MS Sharepoint, Jive SBS or any other collaboration or Social Business platform, the technology is only a small part of your project. If you put in a great tool but nobody uses it, then you’re arguably even worse off than you were before. Therefore, planning a strategic approach to user adoption is vital!
To help, Collaboration Matters have partnered with renowned collaboration and user adoption expert Michael Sampson (all the way from New Zealand) to deliver a one-day seminar on user adoption strategy for Social Business and Enterprise Collaboration environments.
Based on the newly released second edition of Michael’s successful book, this workshop will help you and your organisation formulate your own strategies to drive user adoption of the technology you wish to deploy to your users.
The seminar is to be held on Monday 1st October 2012 at the prestigious Royal Exchange location just a stone’s throw from Bank Station in the heart of the City of London.
All attendees will receive a signed copy of of Michael’s book and all refreshments will be provided.
The Developing a Social Business User Adoption Strategy seminar provides a forum for learning and engagement about encouraging user adoption for new collaboration tools. Over the course of one day, you learn about the main ideas in the book, plus have an opportunity to discuss, debate and localize what you are hearing with the other attendees.
Here are the key details of the seminar:
The agenda for the seminar is:
| 08:30 | Registration and Coffee |
| 09:00 | Opening Comments |
| 09:30 | Context and Models |
| 10:30 | Morning Break |
| 11:00 | Winning Attention (Stage 1) – Group Learning |
| 12:00 | Cultivating Basic Concepts (Stage 2) |
| 12:30 | Lunch |
| 13:30 | Enlivening Applicability (Stage 3) – Group Learning |
| 14:30 | Making It Real (Stage 4) |
| 15:00 | Afternoon Break |
| 15:30 | Measuring User Adoption |
| 16:15 | Your User Adoption Approach |
| 16:50 | Closing Comments |
| 17:00 | Finish |
The cost for the day is £249 for those that book before 21st September, and a slightly higher rate for those that book in the final week before the event. There is also a discount for those that qualify as academic or non-profit – students, universities, higher education and charities for example.
To book your place on this in-demand session with one of the world’s experts in this area, head over to EventBrite. Any questions, just contact us.
An early adopter seeks out new ideas and makes them work.
An adapter, on the other hand, puts up with what he has to, begrudgingly.
One is offense, the other is defense. One requires the spark of curiousity, the other is associated with fear, or at least hassle.
I know a lot of adapters!
This is definitely something to keep in mine when planning the adoption strategy for your social collaboration projects…