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I remember my first experience working on computers, from floppy disks to Lotus SmartSuite. Soon after, my company introduced us to the exciting world of Windows and Microsoft Office.
Working within the training and development sector, we were super-excited to be able to use Microsoft Office. I quickly fell in love with Microsoft Excel and how easily I could create macros to automate tasks.
To my utter dismay, most of the staff hated every second of working with Microsoft Office.
My initial thought was “How do they not see that this is so much better, and we can do so much more?”.
Fast-forward to many years later. Microsoft asked a colleague to help major clients adopt Microsoft Office. We showcased its latest features, including SharePoint integration and OneNote.
For example, we showed how to use pivot table filters without copying and pasting data 50 times. Suddenly there was an uproar in the audience. One of the attendees stormed out, and I feared for my life. I hesitantly continued; she then came running back in, rudely interrupting shouting: “IT WORKS, IT WORKS, IT WORKS!”.
My colleague politely asked her to explain. She replied, “I was angry until I tested what you showed us. It works! You have no idea how much time it will save us!” She later informed my colleague that reporting time was cut down from 10 days to just 6, saving them a full 4 days of work.
As she took her seat again, my colleague said: “You are probably going to kill me for this comment, but this function has been available since Microsoft Office 2000.”
Businesses invest millions of rands in software such as Office 365, D365, Oracle and SAP. Yet employees often struggle to improve productivity. In my 30 years of experience, the reason is simple. Employees focus on their jobs, not spending hours learning how to use software.
So, how does one change this perception? We believe that adoption of the software in your business not only is a function of knowledge of the application and its uses but a deep adoption of an identity associated with the application. Think of the times when you have spoken about that one person in your business that is the guru on application X – imagine if you had more than just one – how would the levels of productivity and engagement improve? It’s a head, heart and hand matter – I need to understand the why behind the application and its value, I need to understand what’s in it for me and finally I need to understand how to use it functionally.
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