We’ve worked closely with hundreds of organizations as they’ve implemented our CRM platform, and the implementation dip can be frustrating and even slow down productivity, and that’s concerning—especially since we’re a productivity company.
Have you heard of the implementation dip?
Let’s try an experiment
- Pick up a pen or pencil with your dominant hand—for example, if you’re right-handed, use your right hand.
- For the next 10 seconds write your name as many times as you can.
- Ready, go!
- Now, switch hands, and do the same for the next 10 seconds.
- Go!
- Now look at your work. Notice anything?
Most people notice that the second time around there was a drop in their handwriting quality, and they wrote much slower.
You just experienced the implementation dip!
The dip is a natural reaction to change
The “Implementation Dip” occurs naturally every time we try something new—from very small changes to company-wide changes—even if those changes are important and will lead to greater rewards.
Hardly anybody treats change as an essential, natural, manageable activity, in which knowledge—coupled with the application of a few skills—can ensure success.
One way to look at change is that it’s an understandable process that provides rewards and risks. Depending on the magnitude of the change, it often has phases that we pass through which can be anticipated and managed.
The implementation dip can be smoothed out with the right understanding and skills.
Start by asking the right questions
Sometimes, when it comes to change, we behave as if it’s easier to live with questions than with answers. As long as we don’t know, as long as things are vague, as long as we’re in doubt, we’re not responsible to do anything. We’re not responsible for results.
That’s why it’s so hard to take your car in when that funny sound starts. Or you don’t make that doctor’s appointment when that spot changes. “If I don’t know what it is, then I don’t have to deal with it…”
Asking the right questions early is how you explore and discover the information you need to gather in order know what an educated response should be. The same goes for an anticipated change and the implementation dip.
Click here to download the Exploring Change form. These questions will help you identify what you know and discover what you don’t know in order to understand your feelings and thoughts about a change.
