Wii FM – music we all listen to

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The key to adoption is matching the point of the change that you’re making to something which provides a benefit to the people you’re working with. And it has to be something they value, rather than you want them to value.

Because while it might seem impolite to point it out, entirely rational self-interest considerations are what motivates most people to try and apply a new piece of thinking or working approach to their day jobs. They certainly won’t do it because they are told to do it.

This can be be summarised as the nmemonic WII FM – what’s in it for me? Discovery interviews with your colleagues are where you’ll pinpoint what they will see as a benefit – so don’t stint on this phase.

In these interviews, you’ll try and identify the pain points they identify with their work routines. “Pain points” are a helpful piece of jargon, and are also referred to as “friction”- hence why people position work improvements as “removing friction” or delivering “frictionless working”.

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Pain points are things which make your work day more difficult or challenging than it needs to be.

Things like having to stop working in one system to get information from a second system are pain points – because switching contexts and systems interrupts the flow of your work and makes things look much longer than they need to take.

So find the pain point, and then find the way in which your project or system eases the pain! If your project is going to make someone’s work harder, then you probably already know you’re not going to win any popularity contests and I’m sure your sponsor is prepared for a challenging few months – but presumably the expected outcome is What’s In It for the sponsor before your project has been given the go-ahead!

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