They didn’t need adoption for their mobile device!?

Recently during a workshop on user adoption strategies by Michael Sampson, one of the attendees remarked how user adoption seems to be very different for mobile devices than it is for other technology. He noticed how very badly written (or not written at all) announcements or instructions for anything to do with mobile devise use are still effective. Yet very well thought and positioned materials on the collaboration platform were not doing anything at all.

So why is it that we achieve great user adoption on getting employees to use mobile devices, but not such good user adoption on using their collaboration platform?

As Michael clearly answered there is a big difference in people using their mobile devices, and people using a collaboration platform. A mobile device is something they use personally. Often it is even their private device. Changing the way I work, using my mobile device doesn’t require anybody else to change with me. I can easily start using my mobile device for e-mail, without my colleagues having to use a mobile device. They can continue to use their desktop application. 

A collaboration platform, such as Office 365 or IBM Connections, does require a group of people to change the way they work. There is no way I could start using online co-authoring documents, or sharing travel reports in a community blog without my colleagues using this too! Often it becomes complex to shift to another way of working collectively. There are different needs, governance, security and culture to address. Making the change collectively therefore is much slower, and requires different efforts.

According to B.J. Fogg, as explained in his Behaviour Model, in order to change behavior 3 things need to be present at the same time: motivation, ability and trigger. This is true for an individual of course, but could apply to a group or organization as a whole as well. 

So what does this model mean? In short, in order to achieve a target behavior (your goal, but could be broken down into smaller steps) a person needs to be motivated to do so, and needs to be able to do it. Motivation makes you put in the effort. Ability means you have the time, money or resources to do it.

A person could be highly motivated, yet have low ability, but still reach the target behavior. Or a person could have low motivation but high ability and reach the target behavior. But most importantly we need the 3^rd factor: a trigger. A trigger functions as a reminder for us to do the new behaviour. A trigger could be an alarm, seeing someone’s face, or an existing habit. When we combine an existing habit, to be followed by the new habit, that’s when we most easily achieve a change in behaviour.

What happens with mobile device use, is that the motivation to use it is in general very high, as compared to other tools made available to employees. The ability to use them is also often quite high. People use their device for lots of things, also besides work, and devices are becoming easier to use all the time. The trigger is something that is always there with mobile devices. In fact, that is why a lot of people are so hooked to their phones. They are constantly being reminded by apps showing badges, makings sounds or even gamification techniques to keep them going at it.

So why do I think we do not need a lot of adoption strategies for getting people to use – for example – e-mail on their mobile device? Because they are highly motivated to have and work with a mobile device. It allows them to work from home or on-the-go. Mobile phones are becoming so mainstream that in general people know how to operate them, especially since it is the same for personal use as for business use. More and more organizations allow people to bring their own device, or supply one if necessary. They are simply available. Mobile devices are great to trigger people into using them (all the time!) which makes them use it a lot and for more and more situations.

 

Van ‘moeten gebruiken’ naar ‘willen gebruiken’

Onderzoek wijst uit dat slechts 11% van de functionaliteit van software werkelijk wordt gebruikt. De belangrijkste reden voor deze zeer lage adoptiegraad ziet de organisatie Silverside in de te technische implementatie van deze platformen.
Het implementeren van een samenwerkingsplatform is echter een mensgeoriënteerde uitdaging. En dat vereist nu eenmaal een compleet andere implementatie aanpak.

Vandaar dat Silverside afgelopen jaren de 3G implementatie-methodiek heeft ontwikkeld om te komen tot 84% tevreden gebruikers. Deze methode is gebaseerd op het gedachtegoed van grootdenkers als Simon Sinek, Carl Gustav Jung, David Allen en Michael Sampson. Deze laatste guru haalt Silverside deze zomer vanuit Nieuw Zeeland exclusief naar Nederland voor een workshop over gebruikersadoptie!

Vanuit de filosofie "Haal eruit wat erin zit" gelooft Silverside in het beter benutten van bestaande implementaties.

Begin met Waarom

Begin iedere verandering, of het nu gaat om een verhuizing naar een andere verdieping of om de implementatie van een samenwerkingsplatform, te beginnen met de vraag ‘waarom?’.

Het meest belangrijke aspect van verandering in een software implementatie is de communicatie. Er is maar één kans om de juiste eerste indruk te maken. Om onnodige weerstand (en zelfs sabotage) te voorkomen, adviseren wij om altijd te werken en beslissingen te nemen op basis van een goede inspirerende boodschap. Werk deze vervolgens uit in een communicatieplan waarin beschreven staat hoe de communicatie richting alle betrokken medewerkers zal plaatsvinden. Dit artikel geeft hiervoor concrete handvatten aan de hand van de Golden Circle van Simon Sinek.

Elke organisatie, maar ook onze eigen carrière, functioneert altijd op drie niveaus. Wat we doen, hoe we het doen en waarom we het doen. Als alle 3 niveaus zijn uitgelijnd, geeft het ons een filter om beslissingen te nemen. Het biedt een basis voor verandering. Als alle drie in balans zijn, zullen anderen met absolute duidelijkheid en zekerheid zeggen: "We weten wie je bent. We weten waar je voor staat."

 “With a little discipline, anyone can learn to inspire. ‘Start With Why’ offers an unconventional perspective that explains WHY some people and organizations are more innovative, more profitable, command greater loyalties from customers and employees alike and, most importantly, are able to repeat their success over and over. These are not the one hit wonders. These are the ones who change the course of industries or even society.”
Bekijk de video samenvatting.

Elke organisatie weet wel WAT ze doen. Dat zijn de producten of diensten die ze bieden. Sommige organisaties weten HOE ze het doen. Dat is de value proposition, het onderscheidend vermogen, of het unique selling point. Slechts heel weinig organisaties of mensen weten WAAROM ze iets doen. Je waarom is een oorzaak, een doel, of een geloof. Waarvoor kom je uit je bed elke ochtend, of waarom bestaat onze organisatie eigenlijk, en waarom moet dat voor anderen verschil maken? Geld verdienen is daarbij nooit een waarom, dat is meer een gevolg. Een juiste WAAROM inspireert ons.
De Golden Circle van Simon Sinek visualiseert de WAAROM, HOE en WAT. De meeste organisaties en mensen werken van buiten naar binnen. We vertellen WAT we doen en HOE we het doe en daarin verschillen van anderen, en verwachten dan dat ze onze boodschap (product, nieuwe software) ‘kopen’. Het probleem is echter dat WAT en HOE niet inspireren. Feiten en cijfers mogen dan wel heel logisch zijn, maar we nemen geen besluiten op puur rationele basis.
Wanneer je wilt inspireren, dan begin je van binnenuit. Wanneer we communiceren vanuit ons doel, oorzaak, of geloof, dan communiceren we op een manier die besluitvorming en gedrag drijft. Communiceren vanuit de WAAROM raakt letterlijk het deel van de hersenen dat gedrag inspireert.


Dit heeft van alles te maken met hoe onze hersenen werken. De neo-cortex is verantwoordelijk voor al onze rationele en analytische denken en taal. En de neo-cortex correspondeert met de WAT. Ons limbisch brein is verantwoordelijk voor al onze gevoelens, zoals vertrouwen en loyaliteit. Het is ook verantwoordelijk voor al het menselijk gedrag, alle besluitvorming.

Met andere woorden, ondanks dat mensen enorme hoeveelheden gecompliceerde informatie zoals kenmerken, voordelen, feiten en cijfers kunnen begrijpen zal dit communiceren van buiten naar binnen gewoon niet gedrag sturen. Wanneer we kunnen communiceren van binnen naar buiten, praten we rechtstreeks naar het deel van de hersenen dat het gedrag en de besluitvorming regelt, en dan gaan mensen hun beslissingen rationaliseren met de neo-cortex. We denken dus dat we rationele wezens zijn, maar dat zijn we helemaal niet. Daarom kunnen we zeggen dat mensen niet kopen wat je doet, ze kopen waarom je het doet, en wat doet dient gewoon als het tastbare bewijs van wat je gelooft.
Om de Golden Circle goed te laten werken, moet je een duidelijke WAAROM hebben, een discipline van HOE en consistentie van WAT. Anderen weten pas waarom je doet wat je doet, als je duidelijk bent. Je moet consistent vanuit je waarden en uitgangspunten praten en handelen.

5x Waarom

Veel organisaties vinden het al moeilijk om een inspirerende ‘Waarom’ voor de organisatie zelf te formuleren. Wanneer er dan een nieuw samenwerkings-platform wordt geïntroduceerd kan het behoorlijk lastig zijn om ook hier een inspirerende boodschap te creëren die medewerkers inspireert en daardoor aanzet tot verandering van gedrag.

Silverside kan hulp bieden in het komen tot een goede ‘Waarom’ boodschap. Daartoe is een brainstorm workshop ontwikkeld, gebaseerd op ‘Start met het Waarom’ van Simon Sinek en het principe van de 5 Why’s van Sakichi Toyoda om de waarom van een nieuwe software implementatie en de algemene boodschap daarover helder te krijgen: 5x Waarom workshop.

Soms hebben organisaties wel een strategie, missie of een visie gedefinieerd. En wat gebeurt er wanneer we de Golden Circle van bovenaf bekijken? Dan hebben we een kegel, een piramide (of zoals bij Silverside: een toeter!). Zo kun je de Waarom, Hoe en Wat’ ook bekijken als de Missie, Visie/Kernwaarden en Strategie van een organisatie.
 

De 5 Why’s van Sakichi Toyoda is ontstaan om op een eenvoudige maar zeer effectieve manier de bron (root-cause) van een probleem te identificeren. De ‘5 x waarom’ methode is ontwikkeld om root-cause analyses uit te voeren voor productie gerelateerde problemen. We kunnen deze methode uitstekend toepassen binnen de workshop om de ‘Waarom’ van de implementatie te achterhalen. Stel de vraag ‘Waarom doen we dit?’ Waarschijnlijk zal het antwoord nog steeds een onduidelijkheid bevatten.

Net als een kind blijft vragen ‘Waarom?’ als deze iets ziet of hoort, kun je de ‘5 x waarom’ methode toepassen om net zo lang door te blijven vragen tot dit niet meer mogelijk is. Ervaring leert dat men eigenlijk steeds neigt een ‘Hoe’ te formuleren, en nog niet echt een ‘Waarom’.


In een interactieve workshop gaan we aan de slag om tot een heldere inspirerende ‘Waarom’ boodschap te komen, die medewerkers aanzet om hun gedrag te veranderen, en het gereedschap efficiënt te gaan willen gebruiken. Waarom kiezen we überhaupt voor een platform? Wat is de achterliggende gedachte en hoe gaat het ons helpen?
Vanuit de ‘Waarom’ boodschap kan het communicatieplan en het adoptieplan verder vorm krijgen. De boodschap komt in alle volgende communicatie, en adoptiematerialen (scenario’s, stappenkaarten, training, video’s et cetera) consistent terug.

3G implementatiemodel

Silverside gebruikt de Golden Circle theorie van Simon Sinek om succesvol de verandering van een implementatie te communiceren richting alle toekomstige eindgebruikers. In combinatie met de technologische adoptie levenscyclus en de vier fases van adoptie creëert het de basis laag in het Silverside 3G implementatiemodel:

1. Gebruik ‘Waarom’ om de diepere betekenis van verandering te communiceren. Richt je niet op kostenbesparing (dit is een resultaat!), communiceer de echte kijk op samenwerking;
2. Gebruik ‘Hoe’ om te laten zien hoe de makkelijke concepten in een dagelijkse werkdag toegepast kunnen worden.
3. Gebruik ‘Wat’ om te laten zien welke functies u aanlevert en de ondersteuning die u biedt in dit veranderingsproces.
4. Gebruik ‘Ondersteun’ om de mensen constant aan de ‘Waarom, Hoe en Wat’ herinneren.

Op het juiste moment communiceren over de ‘Waarom, Wat en Hoe’ van een project heeft enorme invloed op de software implementatie. Het is essentieel om juiste verwachtingen te beschrijven richting de verschillende doelgroepen en om een duidelijke en juiste manier van communiceren te hebben die past bij de ‘waarom’ en de corporate branding van de organisatie.
Het is aanbevolen om de eerste communicatie over de ‘Waarom, Hoe en Wat’ van het project te doen door middel van een lanceringsaankondiging op een (hoog) management niveau. Dit laat betrokkenheid en verplichting zien bij het project en laat duidelijk de planning van het project zien. Om opstartproblemen te voorkomen is het het beste om een bestaand communicatieplatform te gebruiken zoals bijvoorbeeld het Intranet of publicatiepunten.

Download hoofdstuk ‘Begin met waarom’

Om een bepaalde beweging of verandering kracht bij te zetten, en om hem goed over te laten komen bij de doelgroep, leert Robert, een medewerker van Target BV, dat hij moet inspelen op het gevoel en de beleving van dat publiek. Alleen maar praten over feiten en details (dus het ‘wat’) zorgt er niet voor dat mensen geïnspireerd worden. In zijn boek ‘Start with why’ stelt Simon Sinek dat de meest invloedrijke personen van de afgelopen eeuw niet groot zijn geworden door situaties vanuit het ‘wat’ te benaderen, maar juist door deze te benaderen vanuit het ‘waarom’.

Vraag het gratis hoofdstuk ‘Begin met waarom’ aan door een e-mail te sturen naar info@silverside.nl.

Changing behaviour, one tiny habit at a time

During my career I've given many workshops on new technology and getting employees to adopt it by changing their way of working. Even though the workshops were often succesful, and employees 'get it', often I would still not see a change in way of working happening afterwards. "I just didn't have the time", or "I simply forgot", or "I don't know why" were reasons given for not applying newly learned concepts and skills.
Why is it, that people don't change their behavior? I wondered.
It isn't 't just not being motivated enough, nor because they don't have the ability to do so. After all, they have the training, the right tools and seemed to be very motivated to get going.

Something's missing ...

We need more than training

Workshops are only a small part of all the adoption strategies available. Buidling on the concepts of great thinkers, researchers and writers such as Simon Sinek (Start with Why), Michael Sampson (User Adoption Strategies), Carl Jung (personality types), BJ Fogg (Behavior model) and Rogers (Innovation Adoption Curve) I work with the Silverside 3G Adoption model. 3G stands for Gevoel, Gedrag, Gereedschap, which parallels 'Why, How, What' by Simon Sinek. This model assures you impact the whole employee population (all personality types), with a broad spectrum of user adoption strategies that work for in all groups of the adoption cycle.

Silverside 3G adoption model

The biggest challenge in user adoption is about changing behavior: moving from ‘the way we work now’ to ‘the way we work new’, until that becomes so automatic and internalized that it again will be ‘the way we work now’. Particularly with a social platform employees can be dazzled with all the possibilities and the huge change it requires of them.



For such a transformation you need more than training ‘how’ to use a tool, or even ‘why’ to use it. Tooling is the technology-push that makes new ways of working possible, but it does not make me change my work habits. To effectively change or start behavior requires practice and we need to take small steps that are easy to do.

Making it real

That is why we've added a 4th layer to the 3G adoption model: Support, aligned with User Adoption Strategies to 'Make it real'. Quite simply this is done by 'on the job suport'. This could be by supporting people at their desk, or answering questions (online through FAQ or by helpdesk for example). It can also be accomplished by using gamification, as this will support employees while doing their job continuously, trying to get them to go further.

Another strategy for 'Making it real' is by doing a Tiny Habits program. This porgram is based on B.J. Fogg’s Behavior model and is used for a practical support program to change behavior.

The program is all about practicing new behavior. In small manageable steps, that are easy to do.
We need employees to get into the habit of doing new behavior. By practicing we need employees to get better applying their new behavior, so they will improve, step-by-step, from Newbie, to Regular to Enthusiast over time.

Practcing to get better at a new behavior

BJ Fogg's Behavior Model indicates that in order to achieve a new behavior 3 things need to be present at the same time: Motivation, Ability and Trigger. Most user adoption strategies will contribute to motivation (why) and ability (how). But the missing link seems to be the trigger.

Think of the trigger as an alarm, or a reminder.
To get into the habit, you put your new Tiny Habit after an existing habit, which we call an anchor. The anchor triggers the new tiny habit.

The program will guide employees for one week, practing 2 Tiny Habits. During the week they will get background info on the Behavior Model and feedback on their progress. The focus is not on doing it perfectly, but on practicing the skills on learning new habits.

It all starts with choosing good Tiny Habits.

A “Tiny Habit” is a behavior --

• you do at least once a day
• that takes you less than 30 seconds 
• that requires little effort

Think of social collaboration habits such as:

• Sharing information by posting statusupdates.
• Setting your current availability status to provide information on my accessability.
• Getting updates from my colleagues on the project we are collaborating on.
• Tracking my team task progress.

These could be practiced by picking a good anchor:
After I ...

• Start my computer in the morning
• Get my first cup of coffee
• Come back from lunch

And followed up by a tiny new behavior:
I will ...

• Log in to Sametime and set my current Status and message that indicates my location, activities, best way of contact for now, or later (when?).
• Will go to my project Community Recent Updates and read the latest contributions of my team.
• Will go to My Updates page, and reply / like / comment on messages posted to me.

Beyond theory: Trials & tribulations in becoming a successful social business

It is quite common to hear customers or partners speak about their social business adoption strategy. Ranging from advertorials to true inspiring personal anecdotes, however interesting they are, these are always limited to just one point of view or just one's experience.

Then there are the theoretical books, whitepapers and presentations by user adoption or social business gurus. Based on scientific research or developed concepts they provide us with a good base to come up with user adoption strategies that make sense. But what if we do not want to hear just one's experience, or trust theory alone, but want to get insight into what works and what doesn't work for many others?

There seems to be a gap there.

Bridging the gap

What is missing is a good combination of the two: aligning many stories with a solid foundation in research.


Don't believe us, believe them!
Silverside interviewed 32 people from over 22 different organisations about their social business journey. We gathered a lot of insight about new ways of working (together) and knowledge sharing in a social business. Then we took the insights gathered about from these interviews and aligned them with prevalent theoretical concepts, such as Micheal Sampson's User Adoption Strategies, Roger's adoption curve, Simon Sinek's Start with Why, Cialdini's Influence, BJ Fogg's Behaviour Model, Daniel Pink's Drive, Stephen Covey's 7 habits of highy effective people - and the 8th habit, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Insights Discovery and Carl Jung's personality types, and David Allen's Getting Things Done.


Business novel
What do you get when you analyse this pile of interviews and distil the essence of these organisations' experiences? A business novel (Samen schieten op resultaat), based on 2 concepts: A story about a fictional organisation called 'Target BV' in the style of 'The hero's journey' by Joseph Campbell. This makes the theoretical concepts and all the stories a pleasant read. Unfortunately at present the novel is only available in Dutch.


Presenting at IBM ConnectED
But you get a chance to hear about our insights into user adoption strategies!
Femke Goedhart and I are presenting at IBM ConnectED 2015, a session in the
Best Practices track, BP202 Beyond Theory: Trials and Tribulations in Becoming a Successful Social Business. We will present to you a mix of strategies to find the essence of social business adoption. Not just strategies that worked, but also some that didn't work! Because  there is so much to learn from both success and struggles!


You can register for IBM ConnectED 2015, on january 25-28, in Orlando Florida.
http://www.ibm.com/software/collaboration/events/connected/

Find our session and add it to your calendar in the session planner.

Searching the web versus searching your company's collective intellgence

One of the key objectives of implementing a social business software tool is to help employees share knowledge and expertise.
I just stumbled upon a great tiny feature that will allow me to search my company's collective knowledge, right from my browser!

Social business software lets you find relevant and valued information

Often, without a social business tool, employees of different departments or countries are often re-inventing the wheel. Because they don not have the tool to work openly (share what they do and why) there is no way of finding information by colleagues that could be very useful to them.
Maybe these colleagues have done something similar or have been confronted with a similar challenge or issue. Maybe someone wrote exactly that kind of report or made a presentation you could re-use. Yet, without social software in place, how could you learn from them? How would you find that information? Or even know if the information is out there?


So they Google, to see if the internet can provide an answer.


Not that I don't like Google. It ususally helps me find things fast and good. BUT, there is also a lot o junk to go through. Google finds relevant stuff, but cannot put value on the content. How do I know if this information is up to date? Can I trust the source? Is it applicabe to our company?
When you're searching the web, in general, it takes a lot of time to find the gems, the truely useful information, vaued by my peers. How do I filter out the mass of information?

In comes the social business tool ...

Why not search within my company instead? Why not first try to find what my colleagues have found before me on this big internet? Find what my colleagues before me found useful, and saved in the tool, maybe even with comments, tips, and context (what project/issue/client they used it for). Find what our own matter experts have written down before. And be able to find the colleague behind the shared information to see their background in their Profile, to assess it's value, and possibly to get in touch if I need to know more.

What usually happens though

I see it time and again. There is a social software tool available, but our first instinct whenever we need to find information is to use Google search again. Not using the collective intelligence available in the company, waisting a lot of time searching and filtering.

Adding IBM Connections search to your browser

I just stumbled upon this tiny feature when reading the IBM Connections Knowledge Center wiki:

Add IBM® Connections to the list of search engines used by your web browser so that you can search IBM Connections content directly from the browser.

 When following the instructions for your browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome) provided in the article you will get your Connections search added to your bwoser search bar.

It's really easy to get Connections added to your Firefox search bar:

1. Open the search page of your company's IBM Connections environment:
   .../search/web/jsp/advancedSearch.jsp
2. Click on the arrow in your Search toolbar
3. Click Add Connections

Wouldn't it be cool if we would have all employees' webbrowsers fitted with this Connections search instead of Google? I'm curious as to what would happen. Awareness? Confusion? Irritation? Joy?

For now, I'm putting this knowledge in our Connections platform.

Yo for lunch

Today my colleague told me about Yo.
Yo? Yes Yo. Just Yo.
 Instantly we started installing the app, and all created a username. I guess you could say we are early adopters in the technology adoption lifecycle.

 Yo is the newest free social app, available for IOS and Android. 

And Yo takes simple to the extreme. Using ZERO characters to communicate. Just click a contact to say 'Yo'.

 
I remember the poke from Facebook. Which I never really got. What did it mean? But with Yo it all seems to fit. Yo is a word that can be used in many contexts. You just instantly know when a friend says 'yo' what that means.

Many will say that Yo is just a joke. But within just a few weeks time it reached the top of the download charts.

How does it work?

Sign up, create a username, and invite friends. Then tap their name to say Yo. 

Yo me for user adoption consultancy request

Here's what Yo says about Yo:

Yo is everything and anything, it all depends on you, the recipient and the time of the Yo.
Wanna say "good morning"? just Yo.
Wanna say "Baby I'm thinking about you"? - Yo.
"I've finished my meeting, come by my office" - Yo.
"Are you up?" - Yo.
The possibilities are endless.

Yo is the manifestation of the human need to communicate more efficient. Just like a car 'honk' to tell you to get outside and get in the car, or using a broom to bang on the ceiling to tell the upstairs neighbour to be quiet.

Doing the same with less resources (less effort, time, location, etc) is one of the passions of the human race.  Says Ofer Spiegel.



Creator and owner of Yo, Or Arbel, describes it this way:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yo to sign up for tomorrow's lunch at Silverside

Yo is so great because of it's contextual power. Any Yo could mean anything. It's up to the group of friends to get a specific meaning. Between a group of people there is a context and they understand what Yo means.

At the Silverside office we found our first use case for Yo. Easily.

We just moved to a new office building. We are the very first tennants, and with only the Silverside crew there, lunch facilities are not fully matured yet. But we have a fantastic receptionist who prepares an awesome lunch table for us.

All we need to do is tell her we are in tomorrow, and would like to have lunch . We could send an email, ofcourse. But somehow that seems to be too much trouble. So we end up arriving at the office in the morning wondering if we could still get some lunch.

But now we have Yo. Within 5 minutes we arranged 'our Yo agreement'. Whenever she gets a Yo from any one of us, that colleague is signing up for lunch the next day.

It's that simple.

Yo is the notification, you and your team decide the context.

Interested? Yo me. I consider your Yo as 'Yes I'm interested to have a conversation to discuss user adoption strategies'.

Get your work organised Kanban style!

I've been really looking forward to working with Kudos Boards, a visual, personalised and intuitive display of IBM Connections Activities. The past months I've tested the pre-releases, and on June 11th there was the announcement that Kudos Boards is now ready to go!

Kudos Boards offers Activities users a better way of getting your work organised.

Kanban style

I like the Kanban board style presentation of IBM Connections Activities. A Kanban board is used quite frequently in projects, but can be usefull for other purposes as well. The Kanban board shows steps in a process or list visually as cards.













There are some key principles for a Kanban Board:

• Visualize workflow
  Cards make the workflow clearer.
• Limit work-in-progress
  Visualisation and workflow immediately shows what still needs to be done, thus gets done !
• Pull work from column to column
  Easily drag and drop cards to move tasks through the workflow process.

 

 

Kudos Boards 'fixes' some issues with Activities

• Long lists of Activities
  When employees are using a lot of Activities, it gets hard to track which ones are most important. The only options you have to view your list, is by date or by priority. No personal views or ways to sort.
• Content in Activities can become very long lists|
  Often all the content in an Activity doesn't fit on the page, and it is hard to see all the content at a glance.
• Adding or editing content requires a lot of clicking
  To add an entry or todo, or to edit one, takes a few clicks, and content requires a lot of room.
• Moving sections, entries or Todo's can be hard
  When using drag-and-drop employees need to have a very steady hand, and even then, moving can go terribly wrong!
• Real-time views not possible
  Content edited/added by multiple employees working in an Activity at the same time isn't  displayed instantly. Employees need to refresh the page first before changes made by others are visible to all.
• No way of drilling down to specific content in an Activity
  Sometimes you don't want to see all the content in an Activity, but just some that is relevant to you, or to you at a certain time or in a specific context. Activity content can not be filtered in any way.

 

What do Kanban Boards offer?

When you use the Kanban Boards view in IBM Conenctions Activities you get a much more visual way of working. Visualization is more than just another look&feel. It actually helps you recognizing things, allowing you to get to what you need faster, and easier.
It's not just another way of displaying Activities. On top of the visual display come some new features: Board categories and color coding, which in turn allow you to filter your Activities list or content in an Activity. Using Board categories and filters makes it possible to view the Activity much more to your personal preferences.

Some great advantages of Kudos Boards

Activities overview
When viewing you Boards, instead of Activities list:

• Visual display of your Activities as tiles.
• Tile colors to visually display different types of Activities.
• Board categories to categorize Activities. Allowing you to filter your Activities by a category.
• Pin Boards, and easily view your pinned boards (like favourites).

Within a specific Activity

• Simply drag-and-drop cards, which moves them through sections, or within a section.
• One-click editing of the Board settings. No more searching through Activity menus.
• One-click editing of entries or todos, in a visual info card that easliy fits the screen.
• One-click to add a new entry or todo.
• Card colors to  categorize entries and todos , allowing you to filter on specific colors.
• Filter Lists. A list is the same as a section, and with Kudos Boards you can filter to display specific sections (lists) only.
• Real-time work in progress! Boards are synced automatically. Showing other people's work instantly!

I've worked with Kudos Boards for a while now, and I really love them!
I've also created some Activities / Kudos Boards templates that will help organisations get going fast:

• Meeting
• Sales pipeline
• Product development
• Organising an event
• Creating a newsletter
• Personal Getting Things Done system
• Pomodori technique

All templates work on IBM Connections Activities, but really come to live with Kudos Boards, using the visual tiles and cards display, the color categories and Board categories, and filtering options.


View the extensive demo by Adam Brown on Youtube: