Carrot:

A CTO I know firmly believes in ‘carrot’ as an organisational change method – ‘give them stuff they want’ and they will come.  I guess this would equate to a phased roll out of key functionality starting with what they want most.  This can work, but users may reach a saturation point – they’ve got what they want and won’t go further. Keep your team informed and communicated to – people need to see the benefits and understand the move in the context of not just themselves as individuals, but the effect on the team, the business, your industry and the world at large – realising the place of the change in the wider world helps people realise why it has to happen.

Be quite brazen about things – offering an extra special staff party, or making a donation to a chosen charity if 200 docs are reached in a set time on the new on-line word processor is a good way to focus your teams mind at the ‘decision point’.

Stick:

Don’t be afraid to beat a few people with a few sticks (not literally of course). Giving people a mild ‘push’ isn’t going to hurt. Disabling your old systems and ways of working are one thing to do, as well as building in tool use or indeed ‘new technology uptake’ into staff objectives – at a low level. As a leader, simply asking them to use new tools should get them started.  You could make training attendance compulsory, and put people through a ‘certification’ in the new tool – rather than make tool use its self compulsory – to get your team using and interested in the new technology.

Don’t berate dissenters, instead engage with them, both personally so you understand any real grievances, and through more ‘carrot’ activities-  perhaps the person complaining is feeling they’re not a part of the change, and would prefer an active role in the change-over?

Be careful though, better to motivate someone more than coerce.

Summary:

Mostly carrot with a bit of stick. 80% motivation and 20% coercion.   Any ’stick’ measures you think about should be there to back-up and underpin your motivation tactics. If you’d like to know more about any of this, then contact WebProductive.