Beyond Executive Buy-In, Collaboration & Immersion: The Keys to Implementation Success

Working in Client Services has been the cornerstone of my career for over 15 years. For a long time, I focused my attention on getting executive buy-in first, then enabling and delighting end-users with a new tool. Over time, however, I realized that it takes more than simply demonstrating the benefits of software to executives to drive excitement, adoption and value. It requires a team effort across all applicable levels and roles within the company.

 

Convert IT from Gatekeeper to Implementation Partner 

Client IT teams juggle day-to-day support of programs, internal rollouts and even technology deployment freezes during the initial project planning. Consequently, it is important to make sure your deployment stands apart from other priorities they may have. By including the technical team in the initial operational conversations and kickoffs, they will feel more invested from the start and fully understand the effort and value of the deployment. The IT team should never feel like victims of a project that their business partners decided to engage in without consulting their expertise. Rather, they should be engaged as true partners for the entire process so they can optimize the benefits and reduce the effort of a given program. I’ve had several IT Project Managers tell me that after seeing Cogito in action and understanding just how unique the technology was, they were more excited to deploy it over other projects on their plate! By achieving that positive shift in mentality, IT teams will be much more engaged in the deployment process, ensuring faster and more successful outcomes. 

 

Get Buy-in from Front-Line Leaders to Help Win Over Teams 

When looking to increase excitement and adoption of an application, front-line leaders serve as influencers for both the end user and IT. To get the buy-in needed from Front-Line leaders, demonstrate how the technology provides value. For Cogito, we demonstrate how it enhances team performance and skills, in addition to providing key insights that will make their job easier. By showing the value of the tool, the leaders quickly become advocates throughout the organization.

 

Immerse Front-Line Leaders in the Process and Application 

Throughout this past year, Cogito worked to upgrade supervisor training, which had traditionally been a simple how-to training. Now, it has transformed to a more leader-focused session designed to help supervisors become better coaches for their employees, called, “Front-Line Leader Immersion Day.” The Front-Line Leader curriculum encourages discussions on a number of key topics such as enhancing emotional intelligence, leveraging Cx insights on every conversation, delivering more objective and comprehensive coaching sessions and increasing transparency between teams. What started as an hour-long meeting about software functionality has grown to an impactful half-day forum with discussions and reflections on bettering leadership. Front-line leader immersion has proven to help improve team performance, enhance effectiveness and increase the overall value Cogito can bring to an organization.

 

Impacting an Organization, One Department at a Time

Across every client organization, we have seen the impact of engaging stakeholders to successfully deliver value through a Cogito deployment. Our focus on a collaborative team effort has driven high value for our customers and serves to accelerate the adoption of our solution within a given organization. Cogito has become a natural way of life, positively impacting clients and the customer experience. Focusing on collaboration and immersion can serve as an example for organizations and software providers as to how to successfully partner for long-term success.