The Blind Spot I Did Not Know I Had
For almost ten years, I thought I knew what made a ServiceNow implementation successful. It has taken this long to realize the importance of change management in this space. When I started my career in ServiceNow, I thought (and was taught) that success was measured by delivering a solution that worked.
Did the requirements get implemented?
Did the workflows function correctly?
Did the approvals route where they were supposed to?
Did the testing pass?
If the answer was yes, then the project was considered a success. That was what I was taught. That is what I learned, and that is the methodology I used when mentoring others. Despite holding a Master's in Management Information Systems, change management was noticeably absent from my coursework. Given its importance, it really should be a standard part of the curriculum.
Boy, was I wrong! The above was only a small part of the solution.
Today, I see things very differently.
Over the past year, transitioning into Organizational Change Management and Change Readiness has completely changed the way I think about technology implementations. It has shown me a blind spot that I did not even realize I had. I understood that users needed training. I understood that documentation was important. But I never fully appreciated how much work goes into preparing people for change.
Like many ServiceNow devs, I wore multiple hats. On any given project, I was the business analyst, developer, tester, project manager, trainer, technical writer, and support resource. My focus was always on delivering a working solution.
What I failed to recognize was that delivering a solution and achieving adoption are not the same thing.
Technology Does Not Create Change
Throughout my career, I have built hundreds of workflows and automated countless business processes. Every implementation started with the same question:
"How can we make this process more efficient?"
It is the right question. It is just not the only question.
The better question is:
"How do we help people embrace this new way of working?"
That answer is far more complex than technology.
It involves, trust, communication, leadership, training, reinforcement and most importantly, time. Expecting to shift learned behaviors over 30-60-90 days will be difficult. Provide realistic timelines for your employees to learn and then embrace the new technology.
The Piece Everyone Forgets
One realization that has surprised me is that adoption is often overlooked by everyone involved in a project.
Developers are focused on building.
Project managers are focused on schedules.
Business analysts are focused on requirements.
Process owners are focused on modernizing operations and designing a better future state.
Everyone is working incredibly hard to improve the business. Yet somewhere along the way, one critical question gets lost.
How are people actually going to adopt this?
It is not intentional.
Process owners are often under a lot of pressure to modernize their organizations/departments. They are measured by delivering new processes, improving efficiency, and achieving business outcomes. Naturally, their attention stays on the process itself.
But a perfectly designed process still fails if the people expected to use it are not prepared, confident, and willing to change. One must keep that last one at the forefront. Without willingness to change, the adoption won’t happen.
That is where Change Readiness and Enablement become indispensable.
“But a perfectly designed process still fails if the people expected to use it are not prepared, confident, and willing to change.”
The Human Side of Transformation
One of the biggest lessons I have learned is that people rarely resist technology. They enjoy new technology. It is fun and exciting. What they resist is uncertainty, losing something that already works for them, and they resist changing habits they have built over many years.
When organizations skip change readiness, employees create workarounds—I know it, because I do it!
They continue using spreadsheets.
They continue sending emails.
They continue asking someone else to complete the work for them.
Not because the technology is bad. Because the old way feels safer and faster.
AI Will Make This Even More Important
The excitement around AI is incredible, and rightfully so.
AI can generate workflows in seconds. It can summarize meetings, draft communications, and even help polish blog posts like this one. But when someone is worried that a new process will make their job harder or eliminate a responsibility they have owned for years, no AI model can have that conversation for them.
Organizations investing in AI often focus on the technology itself. The real investment should also include helping people understand why the change matters, what benefits they will experience, and how they can be successful in this new environment.
Without that effort, organizations risk automating processes that people never fully adopt.
“Technology can enable faster processes. Processes can support transformation. But only people can make transformation successful.”
My New Perspective
Working in Change Readiness has made me a better consultant. Ironically, it has also made me a better developer, which is where I hope to return one day.
Today, when I look at a project, I no longer stop at asking whether the technology works. Now, I ask:
Are people ready?
Do they trust the process?
Do they know where to go for help?
Will they understand why this change is happening?
Have they been given the opportunity to practice?
Do leaders know how to reinforce the change after go live?
Those questions are every bit as important as the technical requirements. Perhaps even more so. Technology can enable faster processes. Processes can support transformation. But only people can make transformation successful.
Many of my close colleagues have heard me say “who moved my cheese?” It is the title from one of my favorite books, “Who Moved my Cheese” by Spencer Johnson.
Change is difficult for all of us, it is even worse when the change has been initiated by someone else. No one likes it when someone else moves their cheese. Who moved it? By whose authority? Did they even ask me if I wanted my cheese moved? How dare they? Was my cheese not in a good place to begin with? I highly recommend this short-story book. It is truly delightful and a great way to learn about our apprehension towards change.
If I could go back and mentor the younger version of myself, I would still teach her how to build workflows, craft UI Policies, write Business Rules, etc. But I would spend just as much time teaching her how to prepare people for change. Because technology delivers solutions. People determine whether those solutions succeed.
