There is a comfortable pattern to parts of our daily life. If it’s disrupted, we immediately resist. It could be a trigger. A subliminal notification life is about to get worse. There are times when this is unavoidable and comes without warning.
On the flipside, there are times when you can use both relationship and communications management skills to create a positive change environment for your organization when you are in charge of a new technology roll out.
The typical IT team has changed. Let’s call it the new “IT Relationship Management Team.” Why? When you have an organization composed of diverse cultures, skill sets, competing priorities among business unit owners, and more “chiefs” than you care to deal with, your people skills will be your saving grace.
Here are a few ways Citrix Cloud customers are making a positive impact keeping their user community at the forefront:
- Meet with the Business Owners: This is a key component in helping the business owners understand the impact on their team and their line of business, as well as the benefits and value of the new technology. The IT team should give substantial insights and examples of their specific environment and align the new technology with their strategic objectives.
- Training: This is not a shocker. But with new technology however, there are various learning methods. Be sure to have multiple ways to deliver training to fulfill these needs.
- “Feet on the Street”: The only way to get to know someone is to meet with them face to face. Prior to any technology rollout, get to know how people work. What apps do they access most frequently? Where do they work? What is the difference in performance and accessibility when working from multiple locations? What would make their lives easier?
- Communication: “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place,” George Bernard Shaw said. Collaborate with your marketing team. Create videos. Do fun events. Let them know what to expect. Keep them updated frequently and in places that are visited and/or highly visible (i.e. your organization’s intranet site). And remember, your executive leadership team must vocalize your efforts.
- Help Me Help You be Successful: Begin with the end in mind. If your success is a record-breaking reduction in support cases, think about what you need to do to create a positive adoption atmosphere for your user community. With endless methods of communication, you will need to tap into a great variety of them to capture everyone’s comfort pattern. Some like collaboration tools. Others will continue to walk down and have a chat with you in your central IT hub. Still others might want to provide feedback through an anonymous survey link. All of these are optimal in capturing essential feedback.
- Face-to-Face, Open Forums: Set up a “day” and give it a name, like “IT Support Meet Up.” Hold an open forum for your end-user community to engage when (and if) they want to get one-on-one training, to ask questions, and to get help solving issues. Recurring IT support events fill the gap for those who need more “hands-on” collaboration.
Change is a given for every end user, who are your organization’s most precious asset. Make the change about them. The approach will facilitate a positive impact that creates measurable productivity and a key performance indicator for your “new” IT approach.
Bernadette Risley
Enterprise Customer Success Manager
