I’ve been working with a client in Seattle on user adoption for a SharePoint-based team collaboration application over the past two days (using the User Adoption In-House Workshop as the basis). The working group at the client’s organization assembled in Seattle – with multiple people flying in from the East Coast – and we discussed collaboration theory, their plans and hopes for the new application, user adoption theory, and 20 or so practical strategies that can be used for approaching user adoption.

It was a very productive couple of days for the team—they had an opportunity to stand back and consider their progress and next steps, and I had the opportunity to inform them of various strategies that could be used and how they could be used. I really appreciated the way the participants were willing to consider each strategy in turn, and learn about various new options. One of the reasons for writing the book on user adoption was to show that many different ways are available for approaching the user adoption challenge, and to profile each of those ways with both qualitative and quantitative survey data. While it’s in the book, there is an added benefit to those responsible for collaboration to get together and talk about it. Sharing of experiences, asking questions to clarify understanding, thinking through how to apply the ideas in their specific context—all this works when the team is collaborating on the issues.

I’ve really enjoyed being in Seattle, and the opportunity to work with the specific client. Tomorrow (Thursday) I have meetings in Seattle, and will then be heading to California on Thursday night for a couple of days, before heading across to Atlanta for Share 2012.

Now if I could just get these time zones sorted, sleeping would benefit greatly.