When Adoption Goes Wrong

Watched your video, it's thought-provoking! Not sure I completely agree but I can certainly see your point.  

One thing is, you have to cater for different learning styles.  Some might prefer a self-service approach through guides and exercises, for example, just picking it up as they go along, where others may respond much better to a hand-holding approach, with instructor-led training or webinars etc.

Offering a range of resources I think works best, that can be adaptable and flexible.

I think you've hit on some key points in regard to training in general. I do agree with you that feature based training doesn't work. End users do not care about all the cool functionality if they can't relate it back to how they work.

As a former trainer, I have to disagree with you when you say "training doesn't work." That's a broad statement. There are so many different considerations for training to be effective. Culture of the organization, learning styles, instructor-led, onsite versus online, self-paced, supporting materials, timing of training to match deployment schedule, power users, champions, train-the-trainer, peer learning, white glove service, hand holding, etc.

Training is an integral part of any O365 transition. The most important thing is to have a good understanding of how people work today so that training can showcase the "what's in it for me?" of Office 365.

Facilitating learning sessions for staff can be a highly valuable experience for them - if done at the right time, focussing on relevant topics and combining demonstrations with hands-on activities to reinforce learning.  Scenario-based learning sessions help staff understand how a new feature will benefit them in their job role.  If staff leave a session confident in knowing the 'why', as well as the 'how' they are likely to retain the knowledge - but after training support materials are necessary as a refresher if they don't get the opportuity to put in to practise what they learn soon after.

Unfortunately many "trainers" are simply duds!  It's true!  It is such a shame - as a session done well will be memorable and enjoyable for participants - and they are more likely to embrace the new way of working.  Don't stop providing instructor-led training to the poor end users.  Whether through virtual instructor-led sessions or face-to-face - staff need this as a viable option - just invest in a great trainer!  

Love the tips you shared Cian Allner, and also agree with Veronica Skender that 'training doesn't work' is a very broad statement - but I think Asif Rehmani I think we're all in agreement!  

At the end of the day it's all about understanding the audience. Understanding the use case is critical to end user adoption success.  Define the problem that the technology is solving for from the eyes of the end user and communicate how it will impact their immediate day-to-day job.  Apply the 'so what?' from the perspective on the end user to identify what will motivate breaking of old habits.  

Thanks for sharing those tips and pitfalls Cian Allner

I would add to them : Set a clear vision of what we expect the end-users to do with the new product.

As an example, we rolled out OneDrive explaining the potential and use cases of the solution.
But we did not set a clear vision of where OneDrive fits compared to other available file storage / sharing solutions such as personal network drives or USB key etc... We did exclude DropBox and the likes, but did not question the former solutions available in the workplace. This can impact the adoption rate as people will just ignore your change effort.

That relates back to the other interesting post of David Broussard on 'Burning' solutions users might retreat to as we roll out the solution. You want to make sure you set a clear vision of the application landscape and you enforce it.