Change models describe how change succeeds. What they do not describe are the places where technology projects typically get stuck – six of them keep repeating.
Organisations rarely fail at buying technology. They fail at the part that follows: making adoption possible, changing how work gets done, developing the way people lead, adjusting structures, and bringing employees along rather than around.
Change models such as Kotter’s eight steps provide the frame for that. The technology-specific stumbling blocks cut across it – and precisely that gap between what a technology could do and what an organisation makes of it is my field of work: business informatics on the technology side and five years of research on leadership and collaboration on the organisational side.(source)
Where technology projects typically get stuck in Kotter’s eight steps
1Urgency
2Coalition
3Vision
4Communication
5Obstacles
6Quick wins
7Consolidate
8Anchor
1
Urgency
The project starts because the technology exists – not because the organisation wants to solve a problem
Typical triggers are an expiring contract, a new tool or the wish not to fall behind on AI. As long as nobody explains to employees which concrete problem in their work this solves, they see no reason to change how they work – and they don’t.
2
Guiding coalition
IT and project management sit at the table
Missing are the business side, middle management and the works council — those who will have to carry the change.
34
Vision & communication
There is a roll-out plan, but no picture of work afterwards
Dates and training sessions are communicated, not how collaboration and leadership will look.
5
Remove obstacles
Data protection, co-determination, skills, acceptance
Treated as resistance rather than as design tasks, and they catch up with the project later.
6
Short-term wins
Success is measured in installations, not in changed work
Interim success is reported as the number of licences issued or accounts created. What convinces people is something else: one team visibly working differently and better with the new tool – that is what wins over the sceptics too.
78
Consolidate & anchor
Roles, structures and leadership routines do not change with it
The technology remains a tool on top — the organisation keeps working as before.
What follows from this
None of these six points is a technology problem. They all arise in the same place: a project plans the roll-out and assumes the redesign of work rather than driving it.
The reverse would be right. First the question of what work, roles and leadership should look like after the introduction – and from that, what the technology has to deliver. This is less comfortable, because it demands decisions before there is anything to install. But it is the order in which a tool turns into a changed way of working.
What that looks like in detail – which questions should be answered before a roll-out, and who is accountable for what a system prepares – is set out in my focus areas.(source)
I welcome conversations about roles in digital transformation, AI adoption and organisational change – on site, hybrid or remote. You can reach me by email or on LinkedIn.
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