Beyond Pilot Purgatory

Summary

Purgatory is a state of existence in which a person or object remains suspended between two distinct states of being. Pilots are often considered the proving ground for technologies. Technology companies and consulting firms have invested heavily within this premise over the years to demonstrate the value of their solutions to potential customers. Efforts to lower risk have a natural tendency to direct pilot initiatives toward use cases that are not essential to the present or the future of the organization, which places the pilot at the bottom of the list of organizational priorities. Some organizational leaders have seen pilots as a means of securing promotion within their organization. An approach better suited to a social system—a human‐centered approach—begins with the forming or reforming of the center of the social system around which the future of the organization can begin to transform through a combination of both designed and organic butterfly effects.