Make Employees Use It: Apple Killed Typewriters
This scrappy 1980 Apple memo looks like a boring office notice… but it’s actually a masterclass in forcing adoption of new tools. The CEO is literally yelling in all caps: stop using typewriters and use our own computers. If Apple’s own people had to be pushed, your team definitely does too.
What’s Really Happening In This Memo
Look closely: the memo headline screams “YOU ALL BETTER READ THIS.” The subject is just “Typewriters,” but the body flips the script: Apple declares typewriters obsolete, sets a hard goal (zero typewriters by 1-1-81), and even bribes employees with “Brownie Points” and first dibs on new Apple systems if they turn in their machines. It’s not polite nudging. It’s a clear internal campaign to make employees live the future Apple wanted to sell.
How To Make Employees Actually Use Your New Tool
- Set a no‑wiggle deadline like Apple’s “No typewriters by 1‑1‑81” instead of “please consider switching.”
- Tie compliance to perks: access, budget, status, or priority support go to people who switch early.
- Use identity: remind people “we’re an innovative company, so we use innovative tools.”
- Kill the old option: stop purchasing, leasing, or supporting the legacy tool so backsliding is impossible.
- Pilot it on yourselves first so you can honestly tell customers, “we run our own company this way.”
Modern Playbook: Apple’s Memo In Today’s Tools
Slack bans internal email for certain teams so everyone is forced into real‑time channels and norms match the product they sell.
Shopify famously runs the entire company on its own commerce stack so employees feel every pain (and benefit) merchants do.
Notion requires internal teams to document and collaborate inside Notion so the product becomes an unavoidable part of daily work.