Leaders play a critical role in getting employees to buy into new technology, systems, and processes in the workplace. They can provide the right attitude when it comes to making changes, or they can breed resentment in staff who aren’t used to big technological changes. The issues that arise in businesses where big changes are necessary are almost always linked to communication, rollout, and support. No doubt, it’s difficult to change how you work. When leaders assume that a switch is simple, however, they leave out the much-needed opinions and feedback of entire groups of people.
Learn how your people already do their work
It’s a sad fact that many leaders have no clue how the work gets done by the people laboring underneath them. They make assumptions that can lead to costly mistakes. They might touch base with a supervisor in a department, but they never sit down with the people that the technology changes will impact the most. This is unfortunate, as they could get a lot of insight into what’s going on in their company if they took the time to do this simple act.
In big companies that do structural changes or switch technologies for core tasks, this is a major problem. If you don’t even know how the work gets done now, how will you know if the new technology improves the process or not? As a leader, it is your responsibility to first learn from others. Only then can you help choose and implement the necessary changes.
Listen to your staff
New technology can be great… or it could be an expensive experiment. The people who do the work probably have a lot of ideas about how to streamline their jobs. They might even have some insight that you can glean for what pain points you might need a new technology to fix. I find that it’s important to put on a listening ear. As a leader, you have a great opportunity to hear from others with more intimate knowledge of the work than you have. Don’t assume because you have a higher pay grade that you have all the answers. I’ve learned that the best leaders do more listening than talking.
Survey your staff
Sometimes a new type of technology is necessary because the old one no longer supports all the work you do, and your company needs something with more robust features. Ask people what they’d like to see in the new technology. If you’re looking at a new virtual office app, for instance, ask a ton of questions about what would make that technology appealing to them. They might want to be sure they can turn off notifications so they aren’t getting pinged every five minutes, for instance. Or perhaps they want an app where they can easily find their co-workers online when they are working remotely.
Communicate
I say this because, the truth is, most leaders and their companies are terrible at communication. It’s actually kind of funny, as many of them have degrees in it and spent time studying it in college. But what they don’t recognize is that for changes to get adopted in a company, you need to communicate more than you realize. Make it natural. Have conversations with people.
For leaders who walk around connecting with their staff, use your time to ask employees questions about how they feel about the new technology coming. Find out what their questions are. Develop communications around what they say are their top issues. Send personalized emails, leave some information on their desks, and invite people to meetings to learn more. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to ensure people understand what’s coming, how it will impact them, the benefits it has for them, and how they can learn the ins and outs of this new technology.
Have an open house to try it out
While you can host all the virtual trainings in the world and create pages and pages of documentation, let’s face it — until people can see the technology in action, they won’t want to use it. They might think that their document editing app is fine, but they don’t realize that the new app will allow people to make live changes and see each other’s notes as they are made.
By sponsoring an open house with technology reps, you are more likely to get employee buy-in for the new technology without as much effort. Give your staff time to come to learn about it and use the apps in real life, and before you know it, they’ll gladly make the transition over to the new technology.