Organizations thrive when effective communication is prioritized. Open, honest communication with stakeholders facilitates a better understanding of a new technology’s requirements and challenges.
Communication is the primary means of sharing information with stakeholders about an implementation. Sharing expectations about how processes may change is essential to reinforcing new processes.
If your organization plans to implement the Collibra data intelligence solution, effective communication will play a critical role in ensuring its adoption and lasting success.
Identify Stakeholders
The first step is to identify stakeholders — the individuals who will be impacted by the Collibra implementation, including leaders, IT teams, users, and, sometimes, even customers. The number of stakeholder groups identified should be based on the scale of your implementation.
The most important things to communicate are:
- Schedules and timelines
- Tell people when they will be expected to make a change.
- Communicate key dates, so there are no surprises.
- WIIFMs or “What’s in it for me”
- Show how the change of implementing Collibra will benefit people so they will be compelled to adopt it.
- Mitigation plans
- Show that you have a plan to address issues and resources for people to get help if they need it.
- User stories
- Provide examples to display how customers realize benefits and show that you deliver on promises.
- Wins
- Communicate Collibra’s positive impact on the organization, departments and individuals.
- Reinforce the case for change.
Communication Approaches
There are many different ways to communicate. It’s important to establish a mechanism so people can form habits for finding the information they need.
Communication approaches include:
- Newsletters
- Implementation website
- Signage
- Lunch and learns
- Town hall forums
- Videos
- Established meetings
- Social media
- Internal messaging application
- Classes
- Swag
- Lunches or coffee breaks for focused conversations
- Infographics
- Blogs
- Announcements/updates to company dashboards or intranets
Communication is Key
Projects with efficient and effective communication approaches perform almost twice as successfully on many key measures. The secret to efficient and effective communication is tailoring it to your audience, essentially saying things in a way people can hear them and derive value.
Here are some examples of effective communication strategies First San Francisco Partners has developed for and with our clients:
- We created an engaging infographic for a multinational organization using their brand standards. We worked with their marketing team to create messages about data governance and privacy that were relatable to the organization.
- We worked with a healthcare organization to establish a two-way feedback mechanism to provide quick answers to specific questions. Users could get answers to questions as they came up, which helped the implementation of new processes.
- We created short videos for an organization’s intranet site to keep users and leaders updated on the progress of an implementation. This built personal connections between users and the implementation team.
Remember, Communication is Ongoing
Successful technology implementation requires extensive and ongoing information-sharing. Partner with your marketing department to communicate the implementation effort to help people learn about Collibra. Your marketing department can also help build a brand around the use of Collibra within your organization.
“Communicate early and often” is one of our nine critical best practices for Collibra adoption and an essential component of a successful technology implementation and user engagement.
View Becky Lyons’ Collibra Best Practices article series.
View Becky Lyons’ Collibra Best Practices article series.
