“That’s just another thing for me to manage.”

… this is the pervasive way of thinking about things in the white-collar enterprise world (which admittedly is often a slice of work), and this is probably the most brutal to any ideas around “innovation” or “growth,” IMHO.

Basic situation: executive orders some new tech. He was really kicking tires on it for months. He brought in tons of stakeholders. He’s absolutely convinced this {time and attendance suite or whatever} is going to take his business to the next level. We’re talking 125 percent growth year-to-year. It’s going to be absolutely beast mode. Sick.

He buys it, signs the deal, and they start rolling it out.

You know how this shit goes. In the implementation meeting, the sales guy for this new tech suite that’s gonna save everything could barely give a flying fuck. He’s already sold. He’s good. Gold, even. He’s half-asleep mumbling through talking points that represented his entire life a few months ago. He’s outie 5000.

The executive is giddy. Fuck yea, growth. Love it. Can’t wait.

What happens next?

We start implementing it at the execution level. There are some manuals on the Intranet or in some project management tool. No one looks at them. A few emails fly around about how to use it. There are a couple of all-hands…