Using Learning Techniques To Accelerate Technology Adoption
How can a global firm rapidly persuade distributed teams to use their digital workplace platform for knowledge and best practice sharing?
Bunge, a global agribusiness and food company, distributed across 400 locations in 40 countries, have been using a stealth deployment of IBM Connections for a number of years.
When we started work, they had just begun to formulate their first global use case to propagate new practices across all plants. Having seen pockets of success across the firm, the Industrial Operations department wanted a strategy and roadmap for spreading their success.
Following a quick research phase, incorporating analysis of key user and stakeholder needs, we verified that top-down methods for adopting new collaborative ways of working were not working and, knowing the central team had limited resources, developed a strategic roadmap that recommended a different approach.
We created a learning programme using gamification techniques that taught employees how to use digital workplace tools to add value to existing Best Practices content, and demonstrated the value of new ways of working to their daily activities.
To deploy the programme, we extended the central team’s reach by reigniting an underused digital guides network, and developed a learning “campaign-in-a-box” to help customise the programme at the local level.
The programme resulted in unprecedented engagement across all digital workplace communities that took part, and saw particular success in Asia, where activity increased by 200% in the first month as team members started developing ways of working they had previously struggled to adopt.
Activities
- Discovery research through survey, interviews & workshop
- Digital maturity assessment with recommendations pipeline & roadmap
- Engaging learning programme, using game mechanics to stages of embedding & sharing best practices
- Delivered a “campaign in a box” to enable local customisation around the world
- Support and comms materials for Digital Guides Network to take it forward
Results
- Increased engagement across all territories; 200% uplift in Asia during the first month
- Increased learning opportunities between plants in different territories & increased knowledge sharing
- Internal digital capability increased through participation in the learning programme
- Re-energised Digital Guide network became strong advocates for new ways of working