What People Do — Shadow Systems, Sabotage, and the Distance Between the Dashboard and the Floor

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 4 of her book Pivoting to Technology Adoption: Mind the Gap, and makes the case that every workaround in your organization is a message you are not reading.

TOPICS COVERED

Why shadow systems are feedback, not resistance

The Shadow Ledger and the hidden liabilities of ungoverned technology

Three places the dashboard and the floor disagree

The gap between attendance and execution — why completing training is not capability

Quiet sabotage, and why it is self-preservation rather than malice

What to ask the person maintaining the workaround

Why AI is being adopted inside your company without your knowledge

(00:00) The Shadow System Nobody Authorized(01:43) Every Organization Has One(03:16) The Shadow Ledger(03:39) Where the Dashboard and the Floor Disagree(04:33) Attendance Is Not Capability(05:03) The Quiet Kind of Sabotage(06:33) Watch What People Do(07:30) What to Ask This Week

New episodes every Tuesday.

ENDNOTES — CHAPTER 4:[12] Allen Martinez, Episode 103, Pivoting to Technology Adoption podcast, 2026. Shadow Ledger concept: hidden liabilities accumulating in organizations with ungoverned AI deployment. Martinez is founder of Noble Digital and creator of the BXAI-OS framework.