Whenever we're involved in an IT Transformation effort, we employ an adoption philosophy that has four components: Awareness, Involvement, Education and Adoption. The point is to create engagement and investment in the changes being made.
But what we always find challenging to overcome is the reliance that teams have on knowledge as the key driver to enacting change. But as Dan Heath puts it so well in a recent Fast Company article, "The problem is this: Knowledge rarely leads to change."
Yet time and time again, teams go through the entire process and then finish with a thud by rolling out some boring training program and then expect people to change. But as Dan Heath points out, it's not knowledge that's needed - it's feeling. People must make an emotional connection with the transformation effort before they will willingly change their behaviors.
It's this emotional aspect of transformation that can be uncomfortable for IT people. We like bits and bytes. We like things tangible and logical. Where does emotion fit in? But the reality is that behavioral change is fundamentally driven by human emotion. Because it is only an emotional connection that will overcome the ingrained desire to simply "hold course."
So, to be successful in your transformation efforts, you need to break free of the "Chains of Knowledge" and put a little bit of feeling into your program!
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