Outreach

Path Dependence Challenges

Primarily resistance to outreach efforts centered around the time cost of learning a new technology versus the amount of time required for the current process. Contacts did not immediately care that a new technology could save them time and improve quality in the long run. The perception is that it is easier to go with the old hard-copy process that is known to work, than it is to learn a new digital process that will have a learning curve and (because it's technology) some quirks to work out along the way.

The Academy was usually received with more enthusiasm when the non-profit Contact person had a interest in technology. We characterized this difference as similar to people who drive cars with automatic transmissions and people who insist on a standard transmission. Automatic-transmission drivers are those who just want to get in their car and have it get them to their destination. Similarly with work-flow processes, some people just want the system to work when they need it. In short, they don't want to have to think about it; if it works it's sufficient and efficient enough. Conversely, standard-transmission drivers are either auto-enthusiasts (technophiles) of some sort or appreciate a certain amount of control (customization) in how one reaches their destination. The standard-transmission driver in a workflow process is one who knows a little about how the technology operates and will tinker a bit get it to meet the user's individual needs or time limitations. The standard-transmission driver is not averse to working out a few kinks.

Time Constraint Challenges

The feedback I received from contacts is that non-profit service providers are already overwhelmed and taking the time to learn a new technology simply didn't fit into the schedule. A five day, 40 hour, academy training definitely did not fit into time available for professional development. (The idea was originally conceived as a way to work with teachers, during the summer.) With the AICRC pilot academy, the time constraint was overcome by front-loading a narrative of the workflow process in individual meetings with management-level staff and by inserting two trainings into regularly scheduled Staff meetings. However, some input opportunities were lost because the modified process excluded user-level/direct service staff from the discussion about existing workflow process and needs for improvement. In an attempt to recapture this loss, the 1-Day Single Org Curriculum was modified to begin with the Facilitator's understanding of the current workflow process and time for Trainees to verbally answer specific questions about bottlenecks or other needs for efficiency and quality improvements.

Outreach Narratives That Work

The outreach narrative used to find organizations for the Pilot Academy centered on moving paper forms to digital (i.e., "Free training for moving paper forms to digital"). Even though there were not a great number of responses (a half dozen), this narrative may have cast too wide a net. We were targeting organizations who had interactive paper forms to move to an electronic format. However, we received the greatest number of responses from organizations that had non-interactive informational documents (tip sheets, contact lists, references, printed articles, etc.) that they wanted to be able to host online and send via email. This is definitely a common organizational need and possibly a scenario for SharedRecords.

Green
The narrative that seemed to move "automatic drivers" was not efficiency nor cost-savings, but "green." This may be a reflection of who responded to the UMA listserve and network blasts. Respondents were most often Program-level managers. This may be a reflection of the outreach channels (Young NonProfit Professionals network, Craigslist Foundation, LinkedIn). It's conveivable that a "cost-saving" narrative may be more salient to Executive-level managers, reached through targeted channels.

Sorting & Reporting
"Automatics" were influenced by the ability to save time aggregating and sorting quantities of information, e.g. reporting to funders.

Overcoming Path Dependence

I did not find that "standard transmission" drivers were able to influence "automatic transmission" drivers. In fact, "automatics" tended to leave the "technical" work to "standards" until the full project was complete. The way to overcome resistance with "automatics" was to offer a solution that could really impact efficiency, and offer to write up simple but detailed instructions for how to use the TWForm once it was complete.

One Technophile
Identifying one technology savvy person within the organization seemed to enhance interest in Pilot Academy and drive implementation. This person did not have to be a webmaster or Information Officer. The person simply needed to be whomever was relied upon to solve simple technology related isses in the workplace.

Wikis: Driving Automatics
Projects should be moved to a wiki immediately in order to move "automatic drivers" toward new tools, move away from dependence on email contact, and to document learning. One solution is to set up a UM Projects page and email the Agency Contact the link with an automatic login. The "Discussion" portion of the wiki could be emphasized with simple instructions for the Agency Contact that mimic email process (e.g. subject heading, body, click "post" as you would "send").

The Self Assessment tool might also be moved to the agency's project wiki. Even better when wikispaces and TW are integrated, so the Self Assessment can be portable as well.

Demonstrations

A small form of resistance was the result of not having concrete examples of how the technology tools are used. When we began there were excellent conceptual descriptions of the tools, but not enough examples of the tools in use. As we participated in more and increasingly complex forms projects, we were able to easily demonstrate the technologies in action. Sample "technologies in action" email content can be found here: UM Technology Tools.

We also attempted to shoot and edit short video demonstrations, but the videos were labor intensive at the editing stage. As web content moves more and more to video, editing will get easier. Here's a nice video tool I would've liked to have had before we shot any videos: http://www.see3.net/guide/

Documents: Frequency and Volume

Sometimes the nature of documents themselves was enough to overcome path dependence. There was a perceived need to increase efficiency and rely less on paper where documents were used or updated frequently, or there was a high volume of documents. Documents that required regular use (creation and/or updating) were considered higher priority than annual documents. Documents that were used regularly also gave staff an opportunity to begin using the digital forms sooner, rather than later.

An excellent solution from the Academy Pilot was to combine two forms; one annually updated form and one regularly (daily) updated form. The Academy Participants received the benefit of making their core informational form digital, and also received the benefit of starting to use the digital forms immediately.

Some of the efficiency benefits of TW that overcame path dependence were:

1. Replication of core forms. Quickly generating an empty form was a very popular feature of TWForms. This feature was easy to understand and assimilated very quickly.

2. Green. No paper. Interesting that this was not perceived as a cost-saving measure, but rather more as an environmentally responsible and necessary change.

3. The ability to Export and Email individual tiddlers. Individual portability means that a single file can be kept on a client/patient/student and used to generate smaller "instant" and portable information. For example, contact information can be easily emailed to a referral agency. Or a Progress Report on an individual student's participation can be emailed to a parent.

4. Tagging and Sorting. More complex operations were also appealing, like exporting the same tiddler from multiple files into a new file. For example, all tiddlers tagged "Contact Information" can be exported to another TW file called "Contact List."

5. Server Centrality. Despite TW's portability value, people repeatedly connected with the ability to colocate documents and related information in a central location. Even the most "automatic" driver was moved by the opportunity to create a single file that contained all the documents (.pdf or .doc) and urls required for repetitious information output and gathering processes. Without this solution, the user emails the required documents and urls to individuals. TW's portability value-add was perceived more as an option, rather than as a necessity. (This is very likely to change with increased mobile access.)

Scaling the Academy: The Intermediary Approach

One of the challenges faced by the Academy to date has been how to move beyond "one off" engagements with single organizations? One possible answer is to work with an intermediary organization who can then itself train satellite organizations in its own network on relevant UnaMesa tools. This is viewed as a more cost effective approach, a way to multiply learning opportunities, and a logical way to go to scale with a particular tool/process. More on the intermediary approach can be found here.

Implementation

"Can TW Do X?"

Although the greatest resistance to moving to digital documents was the potential for kinks in the technology to disrupt existing efficiency, there were markedly few such kinks. Moreover, the kinks that might have interrupted workflow efficiency were easily identified in the training sessions and modified before implementation. I suspect part of the concern about how efficiently the new forms could be designed and implemented was based on peoples' experiences with traditional boxed solutions. In boxed-solutions one needs not only to learn how to operate the technology, but one must also align work-flow with the capacities and, invariably, the limitations of the technology. The "kinks" people expected from TWForms existed where they were accustomed to having to adapt a current processes to an available technology. This was evidenced in the most commonly asked question about TiddlyWiki, "Can TiddlyWiki do X?" Once Academy participants understood that TW was limited only by the developer's time and creativity, participants were then able to focus on their existing work-flow and suggest adaptations based on actual use, rather than on potential limits of the technology.

Boxed Solution

1. Pre-fab common tiddlers, like Contact Information that can be easily modified to add extra fields. For example, a second contact, for students who have extended family caregivers or parents who do not live together. Or more simply, a second email or third phone number field.
2. Create your own Tiddler function with rtf.
3. Scripts for common exporting and sorting operations. For example, exporting all tiddlers tagged Contact Information to a separate file called "Contact List."
4. Backups. Erase backups after a certain number of days. Backups saved to a different file. (Backups)

Ideal Nonprofit/NGO Partners

Ideal social sector collaborators working with UnaMesa should:
1. Be open to new, technology based solutions. This doesn't mean they need to have advanced technical expertise or be technophiles, but that they are open to addressing particular work flow pain points with an innovative solution.
2. Understand the importance of working collaboratively to develop processes and solutions, and not expect UnaMesa to have all the answers from the get go.
3. Be open to working with experimental technology solutions and without the provision of an off the shelf, pre-baked commercial solution to integrate.
4. Have some technology expertise on staff. This doens't need to be a CIO or Director of Information Systems, but someone on staff who has basic technical abilities and (preferably) is bought into supporting the integration UnaMesa solution once agreed upon. Ideally this person is directly involved in the assessment, planning, and training components.
5. Have an Executive Director or other appropriate executive-level leader who is bought into the process and can weigh in if needed to move the process along.
6. Be able to commit staff time for those within the organization that need to be involved directly in the assessment, training, and implementation processes.
7. Have strong ties to partner organizations that are essential partners in the process.
8. Be willing to document their learning and implementation processes on an ongoing basis, and are comfortable working with offsite technology support, where needed.
9. Be willing to mentor or share their experiences with other UnaMesa partners.
10. Contribute fuding to the partnership, where appropriate, to have some skin in the game.