I remain mystified why companies try to solve intranet usability problems by implementing a new search application, and throw all sorts of technology (mainly SharePoint) at collaboration problems. Technology itself is rarely the answer to any problem, something that most IT directors have yet to appreciate.

Over the least few years Michael Sampson has written a number of books on collaboration good practice. In doing so Michael has realised that the problem is not finding and engaging the early adopters (the First Wave). First Wave adopters may make a lot of noise about the value of collaboration, but it is the Second Wave, people carrying out business-critical activities, that have the greatest impact on business performance. In this book Michael has now turned his attention to working out what the barriers are to users adopting collaboration technologies, getting beyond what people are doing to why they are doing it, and equally important why they are not!  User Adoption Strategies is written for Second-Wave people like myself who find it difficult to make the leap from what the technology does to how they can use it to achieve business and career objectives. It has taken me some time to find out where Twitter fits in to my marketing activities, and now I wonder why it took so long.

The first section of this 260pp paperback has four chapters that set the scene, including the problems that can arise from any sort of change. But the core of the book is the exposition about a four-stage model of user adoption - winning attention, cultivating basic concepts, enlivening applicability and making it real.  The final section provides guidance on how to develop a user adoption strategy. One of the models that Michael uses in this section is a user-adoption jigsaw. It is worth buying the book just to read pages 227 to 231 on this novel approach to the evolution of such a strategy.

This is a book that deserves a seriously deep read. My recommendation is to read right through it quickly, to get the structure in your mind, then grab a highlighter and work through it line by line, and insight by insight. A good book for a long journey.  Although this book is ostensibly about user adoption in the context of collaboration the basic principles can, and should, be extended to any technology-based application which requires a significant leap of faith to see the benefits and opportunities rather than the challenges and threats. Incidentally Michael not only writes his books but self-publishes them to a very high standard.

If you want to see Michael in action then come to Copenhagen in October for his Masterclass. I can promise you it will be well worth the trip. I won't mind if you go to his workshop rather than mine! 

Martin White
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