Plato was squarely on center when he advised that “the beginning is the most important part of the work.” Poor [technology] implementation from the very outset of a project always spirals us towards the landfill of technological promise.
In last month’s article, “Avoiding the Landfill of Educational Promise” we surmised “if technology initiatives (and your products) are not implemented well (in schools or universities), regrettable things can or will happen”. Conversely, we concluded when technology visibly becomes “worth its weight in gold to educators and students alike [then] reorders, scaling, and replacement purchases will then follow like bees to flowers”. In today’s follow up article we will zero in on some strategies that your firm can employ, up front, to guarantee greater implementation success by educators in your defined market—and thus secure a more enduring revenue stream from ongoing replacement sales and referrals. Here are a few highly impactful suggestions for securing a great beginning:
Push for grassroots involvement. Technology projects that involve the actual end users (teachers and professors), and do it early on, experience greater success. Make sure the educational decision maker has field tested your project with users and is doing everything he can do secure their buy-in up front. Don’t just assume it. I recently heard from one end user, a teacher, about an implementation effort she experienced. She lamented, now that the project is dying on the vine and will likely not be expanded or continued: “We are just not aware of how the decisions are even made while [our] population is being impacted by it”. Push to get broad teacher, professor or end-user input from the git-go. Effective educational leaders do things with their people, not to their people.
Push to provide consistent and ongoing PD. Projects that are rushed into schools or universities without adequate training are doomed to fail and, yes, are destined to go the way of the landfill. And one-shot training, also known as “drive-by training” by cynical educators, can also be the kiss of death. Ask your customers about their plans for ongoing training, and future training plans in successive semesters. Don’t let them forget about this all-important topic in their rush to implement an exciting technology. Or better yet, create a new revenue stream for your company by offering customers contract-based initial, refresher and advanced training offerings.
Anticipate and sidestep the implementation dip. A common phenomenon in educational technology implementation efforts is the ill-famed “implementation dip.” Simply stated, the implementation dip is when, despite everyone’s best intentions, the bottom falls out underneath a new project. It’s a predictable, repeatable collapse often seen in education circles: users stop using the technology; things break; other priorities seem to take over our attention; enthusiasm mysteriously wanes; or some aspect of the technology becomes too difficult for users to wrestle with any longer. Unfortunately, any number of challenges can ‘trigger’ this notorious implementation dip. Poor communication can cause it. So can inadequate technical support, insufficient training, or top-down versus bottom-up execution. This destructive dip can also be launched by the loss of a key internal champion, the lack of a repair budget, or inadequate warranty protection. They key takeaway here is that educational customers must be taught to anticipate the dip, develop plans to sidestep difficulties before they arise, and then remain resilient. These are not natural behaviors for overworked educators, so it behooves the industry to hand-hold their customers as they eke out their timid steps towards the promised land.
These are proven approaches that companies can pursue to ensure that projects in schools or universities have a greater likelihood for success and hoped-for expansion. How many of these are you employing early on? – Len Scrogan
