Resistance to change is natural. People are not always eager to jump to the newest version or utilizing new capability that might change their workflows.
What are some of the ways that you have overcome that resistance to change in order to get a high adoption rate to new parts of the ArcGIS Platform? changemanagement
Well you could tell people use it or there is the door. For many people the only way to get them to do it is to literally ram it down their throats. However, that is unpractical, makes people angry, and won't work. Especially if you have to deal with union employees. ESRI uses this technique with their software all the time and it really does not set well with a lot of users. The company really has the impression of being focused on increasing the profit margin and not the user. ESRI makes great programs and applications but does not seem to be concerned that it gets out of reach of the smaller users.
All that aside. There is not best way or best practice. But techniques I have used and my company has used.
The most successful has been to find at least one person or group that wants change or the new thing.
We started off easy and had a Webmap using Silverlight that anyone in our intranet could access. We put our entire system on there with links to maximo. Granted it very basic. But the one group that wanted it used it. And they talked about it with others. Then on GIS day we had a GIS Day and invited everyone in our company (850 employees over half a dozen locations) to participate. We demonstrated the web map. The users talked about how they used it. 60 minute session. We showed them some really cool widgets that did useful things.
That got others to saying, "Hey can we do this particular thing for our department". So we created a custom widget.
then our one interested group wanted to expand on easement acquisitions. We set them up with a way to take the iPad into the field and significantly cut down on job time. He used it for 6 months. At an employee communication meeting he got up and talked about it and did a demo.
That opened the gate. First one, then another, then another. Within 3 years we have a significant part of the company wondering how they lived without it. We don't force people to play with the new toys. We let them see the other employees playing with them.
Long story short. To get people to accept and use the new technology you get them to ask you for it.