Showing The Value in Web 2.0 Tools to Create Buy-in

I listened in on Clark Quinn’s presentation for the eLearning Guild yesterday and two comments hit me hard:

“You’re not about training/learning, you’re about empowering performance.”
“You’re not about computers or web, you’re about all technology.”

I draw from these thoughts that I can’t just be the only one using these web applications. I need my colleagues to start playing with them and learning how to use the tools. I need to be more of an advocate for how the tools could assist their productivity and promote more often.

I have already successfully had the management team to try out a wiki as a tool for capturing answers to questions instead of sending out a survey and having to compile the data manually. I also have the team fully immersed in using online survey tools such as Zoomerang and Survey Monkey.

Today I decided to share the idea of mind mapping or brain storming online using the same type of principals as a wiki. Users can each go into the map and add their thoughts at their convenience. I suggested that when an occasion occurred for such a tool to let me know and I would help get one established for the team to use. The comment was put to me by my co-worker, “I really need to see the value of it to know if I’d want to use it.”

Then, amazingly ten minutes later an occasion has come up to try it out. We teach a course several times a year where three of us each teach a different topic for a full day. We have decided that because there are key messages we are trying to spread through out the organization, we should make sure that we are each touching on these messages during our training sessions. Since finding meeting time together right now would prove very difficult we are going to use a mind mapping web tool to plan out what messages/themes we currently each deliver and then how we can tie them together to match the organizational plan.

My co-worker immediately said, “That’s a great idea….I see value in that.” Now after she uses the tool once she will be able to see how it could be applied to other situations. I just had to discover the perfect stepping off point in which to start and grab hold of her attention and willingness to discover something new.