Knowing that a change is available is always step one in a user’s journey to adopting new technology and ways of working. Without an awareness of what is available and possible, embracing new behaviors is a non-starter. QuickHelp™ provides change agents with a host of tools for driving awareness and communicating changes with end users including templates for email and Microsoft Teams messages.

Here we’ll discuss awareness collateral, what it is, why it is important, recommendations on how and when to use it, and instructions for accessing these resources.

What is it?

Awareness collateral is any informational materials that help you create awareness, or knowledge of availability, of any change you are trying to drive. Collateral can take many forms, but awareness collateral is either physical or digital in nature and often visual in nature – it’s got to catch eyes. Here are some examples:

The value

Awareness collateral will help your change and adoption efforts by providing:

More interactions with your targeted audience 

According to research it takes 5-7 times for someone to hear a message before internalizing it and/or acting [1]. Most organizations find it difficult to send 5 emails on the same topic (and we wouldn’t recommend it anyway), so finding different and creative ways to send a message is critical. A flyer in the elevator or a banner on the intranet can be just as effective as an email and they all contribute to that 5-7 goal.

Energy and excitement

Seeing frequent and visual reminders of a change can make “this” change feel different. Technology changes can sometimes feel like business-as-usual. Making your change feel more like an event or an occasion will make it distinct from other changes, more memorable/interesting, and encourage greater participation.

Next steps

1. Review/customize QuickHelp-provided awareness collateral templates in the QuickHelp resources section.
   
   
2. Post/distribute awareness collateral at the same time as initial, executive communications are going out. Being a couple days early or late isn’t too big of a problem, it is if we are talking about weeks.
   
   
3. Seek feedback on your awareness collateral, take time to learn what collateral was most effective in increasing awareness.

Looking for more?

Have questions or looking for more ideas? Try the following:

[1] Best Practices in Change Management 2018, Prosci