I’ve watched more “digital transformation initiatives” crash and burn than I care to count. You know what the common thread is? Empathy. Nobody building these systems has changed a bearing at 2 AM in six months. Nobody’s climbed a scaffold with a tablet. Nobody’s tried to log into three different systems while wearing gloves in February.
We’ve turned digitalization into a compliance exercise. Check the box, get the budget approved, roll it out, call it a win. Then we act surprised when adoption is 12% and the front line is still using paper.
The Empathy Gap
Here’s what I mean by empathy – and I’m not talking about cotton candy culture crap. I’m talking about tactical, practical empathy. The kind that actually helps you build something people will use.
Try this: Go do home renovations without your phone for a day.
You’ll immediately notice what’s missing. You can’t quickly measure that weird corner to see if you need to make another trip to the hardware store. You can’t pull up that YouTube video showing you the specific way to cut crown molding for an inside corner. You can’t text your partner to say you’ll be late because the drywall delivery got delayed.
That feeling? That’s your operators. Every single day.
We’re Asking People to Work with One Hand Tied Behind Their Back
The irony kills me. We go home and we’ve got smart thermostats, we’re ordering groceries from our couch, we’re watching YouTube tutorials to fix our dishwashers. Then we come to work and ask people to navigate systems that would’ve felt dated in 2010.
Your maintenance tech can probably rebuild an engine in their sleep, but you’re asking them to log in through three different portals just to report that a pump is making a weird noise. Your operators are running complex processes worth millions of dollars, but they’re writing notes on paper because the digital work order system takes seventeen clicks to do what should take two.
What Real Empathy Looks Like
Real empathy isn’t a focus group where you ask people what they want and then ignore it because it doesn’t fit your roadmap. It’s simpler than that:
Spend a shift doing the actual work with the tools you’re building. Not watching. Doing.
Try to complete a work order on that new mobile app while you’re wearing the same PPE your team wears. See how many taps it takes. See if you can read that screen in direct sunlight. Notice whether you can actually do it with gloves on, or if you have to take them off every single time.
Walk the route your operators walk. Are you asking them to go back to the control room to log something that happened in the field? Why? You wouldn’t accept that in your own life.
Try to find a procedure in your document management system. Time yourself. Ask yourself if you’d bother, or if you’d just ask the guy who’s been here for 20 years instead.
Think about the last time you forgot your phone at home. Remember that moment of panic? That reach for your pocket and the sinking feeling when it wasn’t there? That’s the gap between what your workers need and what you’re giving them.
Building Empathy Takes Practice
This isn’t a one-time thing. You can’t shadow someone for an afternoon and check the empathy box.
The next time you’re at home and you pull out your phone to look something up, pause. Think about what you just avoided – a trip to the library? Calling someone? Guessing? Now think about your operators not having that option.
When you’re measuring something and you use your phone’s measuring app, think about your millwright who has to walk back to get a tape measure.
When you quickly text someone an update, think about your operator filling out a paper log that someone will manually enter later.
These moments build real empathy. The kind that makes you ask different questions and push back when someone suggests a solution that looks good on paper but will be terrible in practice.
The Bottom Line
Your program isn’t failing because people are resistant to change. It’s failing because it was designed for steering committee meetings, not for troubleshooting a compressor trip at 11 PM.
Make it a habit to notice the gaps between what you expect in your own life and what you’re asking of your workforce. Go spend time on the floor with your own tools. Pay attention to the friction. Notice when you reach for your phone and what that solves. Then ask if your workers have that same capability.
If you’re not willing to do that, don’t be surprised when everyone keeps using the old ways. At least those let them get work done.
DIGITAL meets INDUSTRIAL 