You want your team to leverage AI to create more efficiencies. You bought new technology to streamline your business, be competitive, improve your company and its bottom-line.

Now? You've got an employee mutiny on your hands. You keep coming up against resistance.

If you’re thinking of getting new software, think first about getting team member buy-in. Software can only be as effective as the people who use it. Learning new software is rarely a pleasure, so it has to be worth it. It has to make team members' lives easier, their work more efficient and their contribution more effective. So, when you go to buy new technology again in the future - and you will - work through these steps.

7 keys to getting employee buy-in around software and/or technology changes:

1. Clearly inform team members why it’s important to purchase and implement new software or technology.
2. Garner team members feedback and input about what’s working well with the current software and if they could wave a magic wand, what features/capabilities would they like to see in the new software. What are "nice to haves" vs. "have to haves." Ask if they’ve worked elsewhere and if they worked with a software they really enjoy.
3. Communicate each step of the process in the selection process – it’s important that your team members believe in the product being purchased and the company who will do the training/support - (Did the CEO get schmoozed by a sales person at a trade show? Or is it her brother’s company? Or were there multiple vendors who were well vetted…).
4. When vetting a software/technology company talk to their current clients about the training process for team members– how effective is it? How engaging are the trainers? Energizing/engaging and effective or Powerpoint/kill me now presentations?
5. If you can’t train everyone, set up proximity mentor relationships around the training – meaning people learn the most from the people who are physically closest to them. (When you have a question on how to do a task, you’re likely to turn to your closest office mate and ask them how to do it. They tell you. You do it. “On the job” training at it’s best.)
6. Express how important their role is in making this transition a success. You want to hear from them – the good and the ugly. Ask them, and provide a venue, to share new learnings, best practices and lessons learned around the software as well as frustrations, errors and concerns.
7. And then listen. And adjust. And then prioritize and resolve the pain of glitches and bugs as quickly as you would resolve the pain of a customer. 

Here's to taking your team with you as you enter the next chapter of our brave new technology world.