At the NASA IT Summit a few weeks ago, the famed Nick Skytland of NASA gave a really good session on the use of new technology by the “Digital Natives” and Millenials (those who grew up using this new technology).  He talked about how those entering the work force were different because they didn’t need to struggle to understand the technology as opposed to Baby Boomers to whom this technology is new (speaking in general terms).  And a year ago and more I would have agreed. I don’t any more.  Coincidentally, it was about a year ago that he last gave this session in another conference.

Afterward the session, Bernadette Buzzell, who I work with, aptly pointed out to he and I that the Baby Boomers were getting it – case in point: herself.  There are plenty of people who didn’t grow up with the technology who are embracing it.  And we both agreed with her.  The divide is becoming less and less by age as it is strictly by adoption.

And in thinking about it, when I started speaking at conferences there was not any mention of the differences. Then, it became a hot topic.  Now that is fading away.  All in the span of only a few years.  It is interesting to see the shift happen so quickly.

This goes back to my study a few years ago when this notion of the generational divide was starting.  I did some ethnographic research on Enterprise 2.0 adoption for a class I was taking and I was surprised to find that adoption didn’t work by age (which is what I was told).  And now we are finding this more and more.

The other day I was speaking to a group of trainers and there was someone in there who was over 70.  Her comment was along the lines of, “I will never use this stuff. It is for you young’ns.”  She was a good natured lady that I knew I could joke with so I said, “That’s not true!  You sure will use it!  Look at you.  Right now you are checking your Blackberry.  You are already ahead of the main body of folks who don’t have one and don’t know how to use one.   You are glued to that device.  If you can figure that out, this will be a piece of cake.”

Adoption has to do with context, not age.

Every now and then this thought comes to me with force…

“USE IT, DANG IT!  Don’t just talk about wanting to do social media, social networking or social learning within your organization.  If you are not using it yourself, you won’t get it.  You will think you get it, but you won’t.  I have never seen ANYONE who doesn’t use it really get it – how to use it, how to implement it, why it should be used – and the opposite – why NOT or how NOT to use it.  They have information on the periphery, but not what they really need – hands on experience.  And I am not talking about lurking.  I am talking about getting your hands dirty.  Get on Twitter and talk.  Think out loud on a blog.  Use a wiki to take notes.  Share what you love using social bookmarking. Whatever you do, jump into it.  So, use it, dang it!”

There, my rant is done.

Thank you for listening. (And actually, even though this is typed, it is listening because you are listening to yourself read this in your voice.  But that is another topic.)

Steve Nguyen (@nguyen162- who we have interviewed in one of our podcasts) attended our webinar yesterday and had a question about an answer I gave:

“In response to your answer to “How do you get people to contribute?”  you said “force it”.  As part of their workflow of course.

I agree with you, however, I’m caught up on something you said earlier in the webinar.  You said something about “not forcing people to read a blog.”  But “force” people to contribute?  I’m feeling a disconnect there.  Thoughts? ”

This is a GREAT question and one that I struggled over for some time awhile ago.  When do you and when do you not?

DON’T FORCE IT if it is an added task or responsibility to what they are already doing.  EXAMPLE: When I started in this space I tried to add blogs to training.  I created a post everyday of a sales question or scenario.  The salespeople were to read it and respond in the comments and review the others’ comments.  This was supposed to be a great learning activity.  Functionally, it lasted two days.  They didn’t have time for an extra task.  And so it died.  Very quickly I added that the only way for it to be adopted was to make it a part of their normal work flow.  Thus…

DO FORCE IT if it substitutes a task or workflow.  EXAMPLE: as I mentioned in the webinar we did yesterday, instead of emailing the attendees for a meeting the agenda and then the meeting minutes (and doing that every meeting) I created a wiki page and did a running tab of all agenda items and minutes.  No more emailing.  No more confusion.  All real time.  But the reason this worked is because it substituted the old way with the new and made it more efficient and effective.

I have done similar things like this with processes, manager/employee communications, projects, asking questions and, of course, formal learning.  Use it yourself.  Post notes or thoughts on a discussion or in a wiki.  If people want them, they will need to go there and get it – thus they are ‘forced’ to use it – but nicely forced.

The key?  SUBSTITUTE.  You both will be glad you did.

“New ideas that are simpler to understand are adopted more rapidly than innovations that require the adopter to develop new skills and understanding, such as the Dvorak keyboard.” (Diffusion of Innovations, p. 15)

Complexity comes in a few different flavors that I have identified – and I am sure there are more: physically, mentally and theoretically.

PHYSICALLY

Let’s talk virtually physical.  Let’s say that a new process is put in place (which will happen somewhere / sometime when social learning is introduced).  If I can’t navigate my way through it simply, I will resist it.  Just like the process change in this story, it needs to be simple.

To use Twitter we needed to go to the website.  Any updates?  The web site.  Check other’s tweets?  The web site.  It wasn’t until third party apps came out – like Twhirl & Tweetdeck and plugins like Twitterfox – that Twitter took off.  Why?  They took the complexity away from getting and giving updates.  Now it is simple to crank out and flood ourselves with 140 characters.

MENTALLY

Imagine being accustomed to a simple, easy to understand text editor.  Now switch that to one that uses HTML and shows HTML as you use it.  How much use will it get?  Not much.  This is exactly why the ‘Pages’ feature of a NING network are not used very often (did you even know they had one?).  It is too complex to learn and so users simply don’t (even though personally I think a true wiki would be a GREAT addition and would love to see it added).

THEORETICALLY

I set up a NING network for a home school group our family is involved in.  The feedback overwhelmingly positive for so many reasons.  But, as you can guess, there are a couple people who don’t like it.  One teacher in particular doesn’t like it because she is not sure that parents are reading her reports on the blog.  She knows that with email it is right in front of them and so, in her estimation, it is read.  But with a blog post no one NEEDS to look at it and so she fears they might not.

It is difficult for her to make the theoretical jump.  I won’t go into the reasons why it is a good move (I think we all know those), but in her mind it is too complex to make the shift.  It does not make sense to her.  You will find many people who have a hard time getting over this hump.  Heck, I was just talking with a customer service manager today who had a phone conversation with a guy who won’t use email.  To him, it is a waste of time and too complex.

If we want to overcome the complixity issue, make things as simple as possible.  Web sites should naturally take you where you want (they want you) to go.  It should not be hard to get there – wherever ‘there’ is.  Finding information should be a snap.  If they can’t find what they need, it will be too complex and won’t be adopted.

Lesson learned: MAKE IT EASY for them to do what they need to do.