What People Need — Why Buy-In Is Not a Nice-to-Have

Seventy percent of technology transformations fail — and it is not the technology. It is the human adoption gap. In this solo author read, Donna P. Mitchell reads Chapter 5 of her book Pivoting to Technology Adoption: Mind the Gap — the chapter that closes Part One and makes the case that buy-in is not a nice-to-have. It is the whole game.

TOPICS COVERED

- The four readiness questions most organizations never ask

- Why understanding has to come before every other investment

- Why training is where organizations spend the most and get the least

- The progression from awareness to supervised practice to independent capability

- Why buy-in comes from engagement, not communication

- What changes when people help select the tools they will use

- Why skill gaps are a symptom, not a cause

(00:00) Buy-In Is the Whole Game

(00:57) The Four Readiness Questions

(02:17) Why Training Is Not Readiness

(02:52) Awareness, Practice, Capability

(03:35) Buy-In Comes From Engagement

(04:30) In the Room When the Decision Is Made

(05:04) The Gap Is in the Strategy

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ENDNOTES — CHAPTER 5:

[13] EY (Ernst & Young), "AI Governance Survey," 2024. Finding that 70% of organizations lack well-defined governance models for AI implementation.

[14] World Economic Forum, "Future of Jobs Report," 2025. Finding that 63% of employers identify skill gaps as the biggest barrier to business transformation.

SOURCES:

Chapter text: Donna P. Mitchell, Pivoting to Technology Adoption: Mind the Gap, Chapter 5: What People Need. Mitchell Universal Network, LLC, 2026.

FROM THE CHAPTER:

"People don't need better technology. They need to be in the room when the decision is made."

ABOUT DONNA P. MITCHELL:

Founder of The Transformation Authority and CEO of Mitchell Universal Network, LLC. Forbes Business Council Member. Senior Executive Healthcare Think Tank Member. 49 years of enterprise transformation across five regulated industries and four transformation types, enabling 150,000+ professionals.

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