Often, companies decide the best way to drive a new technology adoption is to have an employee or group become evangelists for the new product. While designating people as evangelists is a good idea, it is not the best way to get employees to use new things. A far better way to ensure adoption is to provide information about the potential technology acquisition to employees as early in the process as possible. By involving employees in the selection and decision process, they have an increased level of ownership in making use of the technology successful. However, even though most managers and business owners know this, they fail to include employees in the process and typically mandate usage, if possible.

Softchoice Corporation, an IT consulting firm, conducted a survey of 250 IT managers and 750 general employees in the U.S., and discovered some interesting perspectives with regard to communications between management and staff. I found the survey of particular interest because it specifically covered the adoption of Unified Communications (UC). Softchoice found the following:

• 77% of the employees surveyed say their organization does not consult with them before selecting a new office communications tool.
• Of those employees who are consulted, 72% feel their communications tools make them more productive
• Of those employees not consulted, only 54% feel their communications tools make them more productive

Clearly, involving employees in the process makes the end result more valuable to the employees and the company. UC is not a complex tool to use, but it requires a cultural change. Management cannot mandate cultural change. Cultural change needs to evolve and be internalized by employees, then reinforced by business practices. Cultural change comes about when employees understand why a change is necessary and commit themselves to that change. Communicating why a change is required has to involve more than a one-way conference call conducted by management. It needs to be supported by clear and concise examples of what making the change will accomplish versus doing nothing. After which, finding or designating an evangelist is the natural next step to promote adoption of the change.

Of course, some things may be very difficult to drive adoption, even with well documented improvements in productivity and cost reduction. Just as I wrote earlier this week, video and video conferencing are meeting heavy resistance. Softchoice also found that only 5% of employees with access to video conferencing use it. The irrefutable truth is that 74%, or most employees, prefer face-to-face communication.

Can this be changed? Yes, but it will take time and an orchestrated effort. In the meantime, employees will use Presence and Instant Messaging, and that’s a good thing.