for personal reference and in the off chance it saves someone else the maze of twisty passages all alike i went through.

  • launch google apps control panel (http://google.com/a/<your custom domain>)
  • organization & users
  • select services
  • find google+ in the list (for something with such incredible investment it’s buried in the list)
  • select the premium features link
  • in the left pane select mobile
  • find the android settings
  • select the options for enable google now and the optional enable lock screen widgets
  • save

then relaunch the app repeatedly while this percolates through the systems.