We continue to encounter people who freak out at the requirement that they collaborate online. It's a tally foreign and perilous world brimming with all manner of technology threats.
Getting them engaged is all about over communicating. It's using the security blanket of email to facilitate the process at every point along the way. Every email points them back to collaborative spaces that feature exactly the same directions as the email presents. The instructions are extremely simple and accessible. We give people immediate and ongoing feedback as they successfully gain confidence in the skills they already have that are required for their success in collaboration spaces.
Also key is resisting co-dependent emails that enable people's irrational fears by giving them in emails what they need to find on collaborative documents and apps.
I'm convinced that their resistance and anxiety is as much about unfamiliarity with collaboration as much as unfamiliarity with technology. We must do everything we can to get them into the digital collaboration era, that isn't going away.