Introducing and implementing a performance management software tool into your business isn’t as easy as you might think. After years of research on hundreds of businesses, four key steps to help leaders and management with a successful launch have been identified and are listed below.
1. Less is More
The first step, when considering what information to address and track in a management software tool, is simply this – be brief, start with a little to make a lot of progress. You need to start with what’s priority. When you implement performance and project management software, you need to start with small enough targets that users can be a success, not overwhelmed. Start by managing just the key objectives and projects. We are fond of limiting each department to only tracking their top three projects or goals in the first 90 days. Why?
Let’s list a few reasons to support our first step, and then we’ll go on to some important research:
? Learning in small chunks establishes early wins, user comfort, satisfaction and sense of accomplishment.
? Focusing on the most important creates focus where it matters, not on “busy work”
? The key is to deliver better outcomes, not have one system that organizes and tracks every possible activity.
Users who try to put everything and the “kitchen sink” into the software for comprehensive tracking, commonly report “drowning in the data”. Here’s another important reason why less is more. One article suggested that management only needs (but really needs it accurately and timely) 4% of the total information in the system at any one time. Give any of us more information than we need and we get over-whelmed and less effective. And by the way, most of us are swimming in too much information already, so the idea of yet another tool to create more information tasks is not inviting for most.
Malcom Gladwell, in his book “blink,” cites several studies from the American Journal of Medicine and the New England Journal of Medicine, that extra information does not improve decision making, but in fact can impair it.
2. Identify and Respond to Process Mis-Match
You will be way ahead of the game if before implementing a technology solution; you take a moment to assess whether its adoption will simply build on existing work practices or require new ones. Technology solutions are easier to implement when they support established practices. If you already track your key projects in Excel or on paper, and/or if you daily write down in your calendar customer contacts, then engaging in the same activity in a new tool that creates better visibility for others along with easier reporting for the user is a relatively small change.
But what happens if using the software requires the user to do something out of the norm? What if it requires them to change the way they manage information, such as keying in a progress summary each week on their projects instead of the typical verbal report in a staff meeting? What if it requires establishing a brief plan for the day before they begin, instead of diving into email, listening to the voicemail and then jumping into the first meeting? Either of these two changes indicates that the implementation of technology is but a small part of a larger change effort.
Change does not get driven by installing software on someone’s PC. Change that requires new work habits requires lots of follow-up, lots of practice and being held accountable to both practice the new process and deliver the new outcomes. Some suggest that you should roughly estimate resources for a technology enabled change process in the range of 10% for hardware, 20% for software and 70% for training and coaching.
3. Debunk Myths with the Truth
Make sure your thinking and approach to software implementation is based upon reality, not bias and unrealistic expectations. Here are some common truths that you will find essential to avoiding software implementation myths, e.g. these will save you a lot of money, time and frustration.
? The solution is usually a technology enabled process, not the technology itself. Don’t get that confused.
? Technology is like a bicycle. If you/others use it, it works great and can take you long distances at higher speed with less effort; otherwise it is a burden to walk around with.
? Achieving successful outcomes is usually a function of habit change, process change, and certainly not attending a learning session. Giving people technology and a training session has about the same predictive value for usage as handing dental floss to teen-age boys!
? IT people are often not the best people to lead complex technology/process implementation. They need to be on the leadership team as opposed to the leader. See the first truth listed above.
? High performance is a work habit that is very valuable, but often needs constant upkeep. Establishing improved performance using new work habits seems to match the general literature on habit change. Experts suggest it takes practicing the new behavior 21 days in a row before it becomes the new habit – otherwise the tendency is to revert back to the old behavior.
4. Knowing what you’re up against when you set up a software implementation
It has been estimated that 2/3′s of all complex technology solutions, such as CRM and ERP, result in less than successful outcomes.
Implementing a complex technology-enabled solution is a worthwhile, but significant challenge. There are a number of resources for planning a successful implementation. Doing your research now will save you time and money in the future.
Listed below is activities that are typically key in differentiating a successful from a non-successful technology deployment. Bottom line, make sure you cover these steps:
1. A compelling case for changing to the new solution is made. The problem to be resolved needs to be up and in front of everyone involved, with all of its associated costs and all of the reasons why it is imperative and mandatory to not go further without resolving it.
2. Plan and resource the implementation process appropriately. This is not a process of installing software and one training session and magically you suddenly have a high performance work system in which people actively collaborate, track their progress, document their results, and manage information well. Understand the context into which you are deploying this solution, which includes the amount of change being requested, the technology skills and motivational drivers of the new users.
3. Burn your ships when you go ashore. By this we mean once you start the campaign, don’t continue to use tools that conflict with the new technology. This is especially true in meetings. Meetings are a key “make it or break it” proving ground for performance technology. Use performance technology to manage your meetings as you address projects, objectives and performance. Do not continue using general office tools to manage status updates, or risk creating a successful obstacle that conflicts with the implementation.
Rodney M. Brim – Rodney Brim Ph.D. has an extended history as first a psychologist then a senior management consultant to a wide variety of firms. He is currently …
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