Incentives to Learn New Systems

Many years ago I had a colleague who thought it was time I learned to use electronic mail.  Although he often spoke about the benefits, which I as an MIS person should certainly understand, I resisted because I had no immediate need to learn email and felt my time was better spent addressing other priorities.  My colleague disagreed.  Hence, for two weeks, he would send me a message every morning with some little “bit” of information he thought I would find amusing, interesting, or helpful.  Just to ensure that I knew the bait was available, he would drop by my office to tell me he had sent me email, but not the information contained in the email.  Although I found this annoying, it provided just enough incentive to check my email.  After a few weeks, it became habit to check my email regularly.  Over the years, as more of my colleagues, friends, and students have begun to use email, I have found endless possibilities for its use (as most of my colleagues, friends and students would tell you).  Clearly it is a tool which I now could not function without.  Probably I would have learned to use it anyway, eventually.  However, I wonder whether I would have discovered its uses as rapidly or as early without my colleague who provided just the right incentive to get me started.  Such small, subtle, and customized incentives often provide the best motivation to use new systems.