The new in the old

When employees or departments block new projects, it is often not due to “refusal”, but to structures, processes and routines that have grown over years. These have a stabilizing effect – but hinder necessary change.

Three areas of tension shape the digital transformation:

• Vision & Strategy: New digital business models can threaten existing products or revenue streams. This leads to internal conflicts of interest.
• Organizational Systems: Old IT landscapes, processes and decision-making structures make it difficult to integrate new solutions.
• Mindset & Culture: Employees are insecure, fear mistakes, fear the loss of their role – or react with passive withdrawal.

Inertia is not the problem – but how it is dealt with is.

Managers should not use inertia as an excuse (“People don't want to...”), but rather understand it as a warning signal. Those who recognize where tensions arise can take targeted countermeasures – e.g. through new roles, agile processes or targeted communication.

One example in the article describes a large automobile manufacturer. They wanted to introduce digital services such as software updates. But the outdated vehicle architecture made technical implementation expensive. Garages saw their business model threatened – and put the brakes on.

Another example shows: digital teams wanted to talk to customers directly, but were blocked by sales – for fear of jeopardizing existing customer relationships.

Both cases show: without strategic expectation management and clear governance, even well-intentioned initiatives fail.

• you work in a company or public authority that is in the midst of a digital transformation – and you keep encountering inexplicable friction.
• you are a manager who wants to understand how to productively manage tensions between “the new” and “the existing”.
• you are looking for well-founded but practical impulses to make digital projects realistic and effective.