As our firm planned for a desktop upgrade, one that included the operating system, office suite, and thin-client environment, the training department was given a daunting challenge:  Manage the project so that our community will be able to perform their core functions on Day One of the conversion with little, and perhaps even no, classroom training.  The result was a training effort that was substantial and effective but which required months of preparation of learning content, baselining the user community on our current environment and developing a multi-pronged communication plan prior to Day One.

You Want Us To Do What?
Previous desktop upgrades at our firm were considered technically successful.  That is, we converted all machines to a new operating system and application suite in the allotted time and budget constraints.  For those upgrades, our department developed a training plan that would at least review the pertinent information that our community would need.  However, as deployment neared, we found ourselves with less and less time to present the material.  The result was a few hours of sprinting through the material with users, with the hope that a catalog of quick reference cards and online video instruction would fill in the gaps.

Again, technically, we "trained" our firm, but the helpdesk was flooded with calls, and each office had to be staffed with additional desk-side support resources to handle the increased volume of requests for assistance.  The overall impression we received from our user community was less than positive.

Even more distressing was the general rejection of many of the new tools and applications included in the upgrade, largely due to the fact that people were not able to retain the information we crammed into their training.  Years later, we still heard some of our staff say "I didn't know you could do that.  When did we get this capability?"

In the early stages of planning this upgrade, the support services manager addressed the project team with this challenge:  Instead of focusing solely on technical aspects, why not define project success with user acceptance?  Identify the deltas between core skills necessary in the current environment and their equivalent skills in the new one.  Deploy the upgrade based upon the maximum number of users that can be sufficiently prepared and supported by existing resources.

Then came the kicker:  Develop a training plan that would enable users to function - log in, access e-mail, access documents, and enter time - on Day One with only an hour of training.  Assume, too, that attorneys may not attend the training.  In our mind, the burden of "success" had just shifted largely from the technical team to the training team, and our boss had just orchestrated that shift.

Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain
It's tempting to say that we performed wizardry to make this happen, but several actions contributed to that success.

Getting our people ready for Day One meant a change in our approach to training.  Our first response to the training-less upgrade idea (okay, it was actually our second response) was to ask for at least six months preparation time before the first office deployment.  This would give us sufficient time to recreate our online catalog of quick reference cards and videos.  The technical logistics of the project easily accommodated this request.

Focusing on core skills was next.  As part of our Core Competencies Initiative, we had already begun to baseline firm staff on everyday tasks.  Online assessments for enterprise applications brought them up to speed in the current environment, so that we would not have to provide training for those tasks after the upgrade.  Instead, we would only address deltas.  In our favor was the fact that most of our application upgrades were not going to be radically different from the user perspective.  We were able to tell staff that if they were comfortable working in the current environment, they were going to be okay in the next.

This type of message was key to user acceptance.  We delivered regular communications of "You're ready for this" to the secretarial staff in order to build their confidence and prepare them for Day One conversion.  Newsletter articles previewed and made comparisons of applications.  References were made to the new environment during training sessions in the current world.  Ten-second, "sneak peek" videos of the new desktop and key application features were made available.  This communication campaign had a cumulative effect, breeding familiarity with the new environment before it even arrived.

Day One
We decided to approach Day One training with a "quick start guide" mentality.  We created a set of quick reference cards that were specifically designed to help users get through their first day in the new environment.  The Day One packet contained helpful information on installing printers, a comparison chart of application names that changed, highlights of the new features in the mail client and a brief overview of remote access.  We printed the packet in a color different from our regular reference cards, and we instructed users to discard them after the first day.  They were then directed to the new online catalog on our intranet for future assistance.

Day One training simply followed the quick start guide.  In a 45-60 minute training session, we provided only the necessary information to survive the first day.

Since we believed our people could function without many of the new features included in the application upgrades, we decided not to teach those features on Day One.  Instead, we scheduled short (15-20 minute) follow-up sessions a few days later that addressed the new functions.  Once they had a couple of days to get comfortable with the new environment, learners were more likely to explore new features offered in the upgrade.

Did It Work?
After working for several weeks with a pilot group of 50 to 60, we were ready for our first office deployment.  We chose our youngest office (fewer established bad habits), which had 71 users.  20 business days prior to deployment, we initiated a targeted communication plan, which included the "sneak peek" videos.

On Day One, the helpdesk logged 73 calls that were directly connected to the upgrade.  Deployment processes were refined, but our training plan remained unchanged.  Our second office, which was virtually the same size, logged only 23 helpdesk calls on Day One.  There is now a buzz in the other offices that the upgrade is a positive experience, and these offices are now asking when it will be their turn.

What We Learned
Our support services manager introduced a more effective method for deploying desktop upgrades that emphasized user acceptance and minimal interruption in productivity.  The keys to this method were:

• Defining deployment success with acceptance by the firm community instead of by technical capacity
• Providing adequate time for the training team to develop a completed catalog of (print and online) training materials before deployment
• Focusing on current core skills so that the upgrade training would only have to address what is truly new
• Creating a communication plan that provided preview information so that the community would be familiar with the changes prior to deployment
• Training survival skills only for Day One, then supplementing with follow-up training on new features a few days later

About our authors

Ann Gerbin, Tony Hartsfield and Thomas Pullen are members of the Bryan Cave Training Team at Bryan Cave LLP.  Tony and Thomas are the co-founders of the Society of Legal Learning Professionals, an online community for the legal learning field.  Tony serves on ILTA's User Support Peer Group Steering Committee.  They can be reached at amgerbin@bryancave.com, tlhartsfield@bryancave.com and trpullen@bryancave.com.