On Sat, 22 Oct 2011, Sean Dague wrote:
That's what we did. It worked for the most part, but may not match
the group dynamic you are dealing with.
When working with non-technical non-profits, I've also found you really need
to invest in face to face training. Figuring out how tech works is only
interesting to a subset of people, so being able to walk people through
things (probably multiple times) goes a long way to helping adoption.
Yes, and there is a fear factor involved -- the fear that it will be too
hard, or too complicated, or too time consuming, or too confusing. Having
a demonstration of how easy it is, or simple (at least for basic tasks)
and/or showing them that the complexity is limited to certain things (that
perhaps someone else can take care of) can help. Once the entire scope
is in sight, the fear of the unknown size of the issue can abate.
But not in all cases. My own mother won't listen to what I tell her,
because the fear factor remains no matter what I say; because it's really
anything I do that is complex or too confusing (from her point of view).
My wife has a similar problem with her parents, so we have a deal that we
each help the other's parents with their computer problems, because the
in-laws will listen when the parents sometimes won't.
That last bit probably won't apply to the non-profit, but the fear of
complexity or difficulty in some form is probably there and you need to
address that, not just the techinical workings.
-Eric
--
Eric Myers <[email protected]> 845-475-8176
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