10 Effective Strategies for Adopting and Embracing New Technology in Business

In the fast-evolving landscape of technology, it’s crucial for teams to stay up-to-date and adaptable. We’ve gathered insights from ten professionals, including managing directors and global SEO managers, to share their strategies. From launching an internal incubator program to clarifying goals and regularly checking relevance, discover how leaders are fostering successful tech adoption within their teams.

• Launch an Internal Incubator Program
• Simplify and Engage in Tech Learning
• Lead by Example with Prompt Engineering
• Incentivize and Recognize Tech Adoption
• Cultivate Team Involvement from the Start
• Foster a Continuous Learning Environment
• Test Thoroughly and Gather Feedback
• Involve Team in Technology Selection
• Frame Tech as Craftsmanship Enhancement
• Clarify Goals and Regularly Check Relevance

Launch an Internal Incubator Program

As a technology executive continuously evaluating innovations while balancing change fatigue, the key strategy I’ve implemented for driving the adoption of new platforms without disrupting productivity is an internal incubator program. This voluntary initiative allows interested employees to pilot tools in sandboxes, become certified experts, and make recommendations on deployment or discontinued trials—turning them into both co-creators and champions of change.

My team identifies early beta technologies like virtual whiteboarding or augmented documentation that could enhance cross-functional workflows. However, instead of mandated top-down rollouts, employees are invited to join three-month incubator cohorts testing possibilities while earning public credits and credentials. They experience benefits firsthand without obligation.

We conclude trials with incubator project demos and feedback sessions. Positive momentum and expertise gained during incubation then fuels wider interest and readiness for formal launches. This grassroots exposure phases adoption while building early internal advocates to support implementation at scale.

Not every incubator project graduates to production, but positive PR and giving staff sneak peeks into the future of work sparks engagement. Employees feel invested in transformation, which unlocks more creativity in leveraging new tools. Ultimately, our incubator-to-adoption approach confronts change resistance through transparent upskilling and participation.

Debbie Chew
Global SEO Manager, Dialpad

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Simplify and Engage in Tech Learning

To infuse tech enthusiasm, I wove simplicity and hands-on learning into our tech adoption strategy. No jargon—just plain language. Step one? Bite-sized workshops. Quick, engaging sessions to showcase benefits. Result? A 20% spike in tech eagerness.

Next, a shared digital space. A simple platform where wins, concerns, and tips flowed freely. Within a month, a 15% boost in tech collaboration. Real-life proof? One hesitant team member emerged as a tech cheerleader, accelerating the entire team’s embrace. Forget tech speak; embrace understanding. Today, our tech journey thrives, one user-friendly step at a time.

Joe Li
Managing Director, CheckYa

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Lead by Example with Prompt Engineering

You can only convince your team to adopt new technologies when they see you embracing them and getting better at what you do. So, start there. Then, follow my lead:

Recently, I came across prompt engineering and how it helped me achieve far better results from GPT models. To help my team understand its importance, I approached them one by one, explaining how I was becoming more efficient by using the right prompts. This is how I laid the groundwork, influencing them towards using AI for content generation.

Next, I encouraged them to attend a workshop on prompt engineering, and I paid for it. This showed my commitment to helping them.

Once they had completed the course, I assigned them some beginner tasks requiring prompts to generate content. The key here is to give feedback and, most importantly, celebrate when (not if) they do it right.

Finally, I successfully created a give-and-take culture, exchanging ideas on how to achieve better results with the right prompting and encouraging them to experiment, explore, and collaborate.

This way, I was able to help my team learn and master prompt engineering in a fun and effective manner. I saw a positive impact on our work that was reflected in our clients’ reviews. Overall, it was a worthwhile effort. Money well spent!

Bhavik Sarkhedi
Growth Head and CMO, Content Whale

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Incentivize and Recognize Tech Adoption

Drawing insights gained from recent books, I realized that fostering adoption is more about integrating new tools into our existing systems rather than focusing solely on individual actions. We introduced a structured reward system, offering incentives like Amazon or Sodexo coupons, lunch vouchers, etc., to those who consistently utilized the new technology. Additionally, we initiated recognitions such as “Star of the Month” or acknowledgments for most technology usage, fostering a healthy spirit.

To facilitate knowledge sharing and address challenges, we scheduled brief, twice-weekly meetings (15 minutes each), for teams to share their experiences, provide feedback, and work on further improvements. This allowed me to grasp real-time challenges, leverage positive experiences, and motivate the team towards adopting new technology, emphasizing the collective effort—”WE” rather than just “ME”—to simplify processes and drive successful technology adoption.

Shruti Nayak
Principal Associate and Head – Client Success Management, NamanHR

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Cultivate Team Involvement from the Start

I implement a strategy of team involvement from the very beginning. Instead of presenting new technology as a solution, I instilled a culture of constant curiosity—first, drive needed change. I encouraged everyone to keep an eye out for what we could improve on, often leading to innovative ideas and technologies.

Next, help the team buy in. They were tasked with weighing the pros and cons of the technology, considering the benefits, drawbacks, assessing ROI and opportunity cost, and exploring alternative solutions based on our success criteria and goals.

Finally, include who you can, when you can. We included all related departments and individuals to help in our evaluation, identify criteria and opportunities we missed, help with timelines, etc.

This approach makes teams active contributors from the start. It significantly reduced the learning curve associated with change, minimized resistance, and amplified the potential for success. Team members embraced the technology because they recognized it as a genuine necessity, rather than it being imposed upon them. This facilitated a smoother transition and cultivated a sense of ownership and enthusiasm for the project.

Cheryle Hays
Founder and CEO, InPower Strategists

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Foster a Continuous Learning Environment

The best way to encourage your team to adopt and embrace new technologies is by encouraging them to foster a continuous learning environment where they are empowered to learn new things and stay up-to-date on their career development initiatives. This encourages the team to always think about ways to improve not only themselves as individuals but also to find new tools and methods to improve their productivity and creativity.

As a managed IT company, we continuously find new technologies to improve not only our business but also those of our clients.

Simon Kadota
Marketing Lead, DNSnetworks

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Test Thoroughly and Gather Feedback

Prolonged and in-depth testing is the correct way to get skeptics to adopt new technology. You want your team and your specialists to really immerse themselves in the technology you’re looking to leverage, and without these people, you will not succeed.

So, I strongly recommend letting your talent give the tech a go well in advance of its implementation, to collect their feedback and advice, and to put it into effect to keep everyone happy and engaged.

Shaun Gozo-Hill
Director, 2Game

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Involve Team in Technology Selection

The key is to get your team on board and involved in choosing the new technology. There should be a need for the technology already identified. That makes it so much easier to convince your team to use it, as they are already aware of its value.

Jarir Mallah
Human Resources Manager, Ling App

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Frame Tech as Craftsmanship Enhancement

Consider this thought to successfully implement a strategy to encourage your staff to adopt new technologies that match their values: Framing technology as a tool to improve quality and craftsmanship, rather than replace it, changes the narrative.

Present new technologies as tools to enhance skills. Emphasize how a picture-editing product can brighten photos or how a data analysis platform can improve audience targeting. Display creative experts who smoothly integrate technology into their work to demonstrate human-technology synergy. Share articles and interviews showing how photographers, designers, and writers use technology without compromising their style.

Next, emphasize hands-on experimentation and personalized learning. Make “playtime” sessions safe for your team to use new tools without fear of failure. To accommodate varied learning styles, offer video lessons, workshops, and one-on-one mentorship. Celebrate modest successes to promote learning. Highlight even small technological advances. This strategy encourages constant learning and confidence in innovation in your team.

Ryan Thompson
Editor, Men’s Flair

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Clarify Goals and Regularly Check Relevance

In my experience, one of the best ways to encourage your team to adopt and embrace new technologies is to make sure that you’re always clear about what you’re trying to accomplish and why you’re trying to accomplish it.

I once worked for a company that was very focused on “being agile” and “using the latest technology.” They were constantly telling us about how we needed to be faster and more efficient, but they never really explained what that meant or how we could actually do it.

So we’d work all day, trying to figure out what exactly it was that we were supposed to be doing differently. We would try new tools and techniques, but none of them worked because none of them were actually relevant to our actual workflows or goals. Eventually, some people just gave up and went back to old methods, while others just got frustrated because there was no way for them to know if they were doing something wrong or if there were better ways out there that they hadn’t even considered yet.

My advice is to avoid letting yourself get caught in this trap! Make sure that everyone on your team clearly understands what success looks like before you implement any new policies or processes—and then make sure you’re constantly checking in to see if those goals are still relevant. If they’re not, then it’s time to change things up again!

Mac Steer
Owner and Director, Simify

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