Once a tool is chosen and the adoption phase begins, you will need to involve key stakeholders in the beginning to help manage the change. Many players are involved, so you must identify and mitigate possible risks, including refusal to adopt the tool, or volunteers and partners not showing up. Evaluating risk includes identifying the likelihood of an event occurring and the resulting negative impact.
Next, think about how to communicate the decision to implement a new technology and how to get people involved. What are you going to say to your stakeholders? Is it going to be in a series of emails, in a meeting, or in a newsletter? Finally, who is going to be rolling this out, and who can answer questions? This is where your end-user pilot advocates will come into play. Also, you can identify people whom you believe will be early adopters to have them be part of the rollout plan.
Once a communication plan has been identified, a training program should be developed. The program includes not only hands-on training, but development of collateral materials, such as step-by-step guides, reminder emails, or tip sheets. These are helpful reference tools for people who are slow to adopt technology.
Finally, evaluation of the tool post-rollout will demonstrate the effectiveness of the solution. Usage statistics can show how many people are coming to training, who is using the tool, and how frequently. Collecting information along the way can help identify the most effective strategy for adoption. Other evaluation measures can be done through surveys or focus groups to find out if the technology solution is addressing the needs that it was designed to address.