Reworked TV
It's a wrap! Season 2 of Three Dots built on the momentum of its inaugural season with more insights from digital workplace leaders guiding their organizations into the brave new world of the future of work. Below are some of the big picture takeaways:
Table of Contents
- Tech Projects Fail for the Same Reason, Even GenAI
- Avoid Shiny Tool Syndrome
- Be Clear on Your Goals
- Involve Your People if You Want to See Adoption
- Start With the Basics
- See You Again in Season 3
Tech Projects Fail for the Same Reason, Even GenAI
Generative AI may bring new and previously unknown capabilities to our workplaces, but the hard-won lessons of previous IT project implementations still apply.
Avoid Shiny Tool Syndrome
The technology hammer looking for the nail trope is as old as the hills, yet that hasn't stopped people from jumping into GenAI pilots without a clear business strategy, an understanding of employee needs and the hard foundational work that sets it up for success. As Deep Analysis's Alan Pelz-Sharpe said in episode 5, "The historical reality is 75% of IT projects fail. And they've been failing for the same reasons for the last 40 years. So I don't really know why we expected something different with AI."
Be Clear on Your Goals
Are you introducing the tool to improve productivity? Spark innovation? Is it an efficiency play? Is it specifically to replace people? Clarity on this point will help you select your metrics and guide your implementation. EzCater's Mark Christianson shared his company's innovation goals in episode 7 and Flight Centre's Nick Williams discussed the automations his team created to do the work of employees let go during the pandemic in episode 8.
Involve Your People if You Want to See Adoption
Rebecca Hinds, formerly of Asana, put it well: "We know from decades of technology adoption that technology rarely fails because of the technology. It fails because humans resist it and don't use it. And the fact that so few organizations are actually asking employees, is this the right solution? and measuring if they are using it is very surprising, but consistent, with what we've seen in the past."
Businesses that ignore the change management step risk turning on expensive investments only for employees to revert to how they've always worked. Martin Stubbs-Partridge brought us an example of stealth change management from the Scottish Funding Council in episode 6 and LinkedIn's Tiffani Murray discussed it in the context of creating realistic expectations with leaders in episode 10: "The change management is also a piece that adds to the timeline. Because sure, you could just call somebody by next week and have this house totally AI powered. But would I adopt all those things? I would I still do things manually because it's just second nature and I didn't get that change management part yet."
One tip that may help your change management efforts? Understanding what people need from their workplaces. Upwork's Kelly Monahan shared that info in episode 1.
Start With the Basics
The pressure to adopt GenAI is real, but jumping in without having your foundations right will leave you building on shaky ground. Kristy Litchford of the Campbell's Company shared why the not as glamorous foundational work is still needed in episode 2: "If people aren't comfortable using foundational capabilities, they're not going to get the perceived benefit from the investment in the new shining capabilities, which I would call generative AI. Going back to just foundational pieces — are they comfortable using cloud collaboration? If not, those solutions aren't going to really do anything for them, right?"
See You Again in Season 3
Thank you to all of my guests whose insights and experiences made this season so memorable.
And stay tuned for season three! We've already got some great discussions underway and we are excited to kick it off in 2026! Thanks to all of you for coming along for the ride.
