“Adoption is the new innovation” is a pithy reference I made by accident on an industry event stage a couple of years ago. The fast follow to that reference was “this is what we’ve learned the hard way.”

I was calling attention to the realities of enterprise software I’ve witnessed firsthand at companies big and small over many years. Too often a great new product is purchased for its productivity promises but disappoints upon delivery because it isn’t used. Fingers are pointed, frustration builds. Here I’m looking at all firms and all associates and digging deeper into the much needed issue of technology “adoption.”

There are myriad explanations for the phenomenon I call “adopter’s palsy.” The most common one is that the buyers and users of tech are different people—think of the corporate IT department dropping a new app on a firm’s financial advisors at the behest of headquarter management. The understanding of how the product will be used frequently eludes the IT people, who buy the software but are not responsible for its use. The HQ management is sold on the potential but does not have an adoption plan. The advisors weren’t asking for another system to learn in the first place, so the new intro gets ignored to death.

Another frequent foil to software adoption is that the company has budgeted for the software but not for the cost of training people to use it adequately. Confident that “our team can do it,” optimistic but otherwise unengaged managers claim credit for saving the company cash, only to learn over time they have actually increased costs, including those for human time. Any company selling solutions must be smart about the “full” cost of their capability. Most are not, and they end up with unhappy customers.

Of course, there is another trend that is also a significant cause of adopter’s palsy. The average age of financial advisors has been rising fast, alongside that of the clients, and many advisors are racing their clients to the retirement goal line. And why not? Aging advisors may be slowing down by farming out smaller clients or taking on junior partners. Not too many have the energy to take on a tech tool learning curve.

Every business has a critical need to integrate new digital tools. Besides hiring and retaining top people, I can’t think of anything more important and impactful for a firm today than software integration. Tech frees people to do things only people can do. It’s the biggest blind spot of management in this era that they often fail to understand that value relationship.

In May, Tom Bradley, the managing director of Schwab Advisor Services, spoke at the Next Chapter Rockin’ Retirement conference (sponsored by Financial Advisor magazine, the Execution Project and the Money Management Institute). Bradley said he sees better technology adoption rates at smaller firms than most big firms. That suggests that urgency to adopt is a function of proximity. But when we look broadly, we see other factors as well.

So what does it take to create adoption?

1. Demand by the End Consumer
For any new anything there must be an impact on the results of the organization. And the only reliable objective is more and better business. So whatever you are trying to deploy, it has to be easily linked to better outcomes. That means saying to your staff, “We are not asking you to use the new CRM because we want to make you crazy. We are doing it because it allows us to do more business. And do it better. And much easier. And here’s how …”

2. The Ease of Doing Business
In my experience, you earn a loyal following in business if you make people’s jobs simpler and easier. Even more than money, people value the respect they get from a company trying to make their lives better. The pandemic has turned employee job satisfaction into Management Job No. 1. When you can walk that talk with better tools and procedures, you earn employees’ goodwill and that makes them more receptive to new initiatives. You can pass the benefits to consumers as well because you have made it easier to do business with them and forged critical partnerships. You know those partnerships are working when both parties report less friction and better results.

3. Industry and Internal Collaboration
Once you have a clear eye for the impact of technology on both consumers and your associates, it’s time to seize new opportunities in new business categories. Maybe you want to spread into managed accounts, financial planning or retirement counseling. To grow in a new category and get out of a silo, firms will require the broad support of the industry ecosystem, including connectivity with other capabilities and companies.

The “go it alone” approach likely won’t work.

4. Lead. Really.
Once a firm has seized on a category it wants to succeed in and the technology it wants to use, everyone needs to come to the management table agreeing on transparency and the commitment to success. Management must be fully engaged. It’s not enough to buy a piece of software for someone else to use. Managers should be visible and take the time to learn the software themselves, keeping track of any issues with new tech that pop up. Here’s a quick test: If you cannot comfortably sit in a new user group and understand the feedback, you are not engaged enough. Some of the most effective process solutions I’ve ever witnessed came by subjecting senior managers to the bumpy experience of using new technology and watching them remove the roadblocks.

5. Recognize a New Role, And Go Old School
I saved the best for last: Here’s where adoption really lives.

There is a professional version of the old chicken and the egg dilemma. Having a great kitchen knife doesn’t make you a chef, yet a great kitchen knife in the hands of a skilled chef can create works of culinary art. Ditto for golf clubs, microscopes and financial planning software.

Tools of any kind will achieve their greatest value in the hands of a trained pro. Tools on their own are just tools, orphans in search of parents.

In order to provide a meaningful and sustainable professional service, our first task is to support those professional pioneers who will lead. The tools will make sense in their hands.

We have seen this movie before. Remember the history of managed accounts. When they were first given to commission-driven stockbrokers, they were sold like other products—touted for recent performance and dumped when the numbers dipped.

But the professional development of managed account consultants later on turned the product into a service, and that paved the way for wealth management. A similar arc drove financial planning. It started with the role of a financial planner, and that led to the professional designation of the CFP.

Both managed accounts and financial planning grew in response to consumer demand for better outcomes. The professionals who saw those opportunities had the natural savvy, long-term perspective and empathy for the client condition. They took on new roles and pulled in the supportive tools as a natural evolution of their business. They did not get a set of golf clubs for Christmas and then set out for the links to try their hand at a new sport.

Today the demand is clear for advisors dedicated to supporting clients in their “next chapter.” (Don’t call it “retirement” because most people don’t think of it that way.) Clients are concerned about their health, about financing healthcare and about protecting their income and liquidity. Financial planning is now about funding their life, not saving for a far off bogey called “retirement.” They need help right now from professionals dedicated to helping them succeed.

So “adoption” is first a commitment to professional development. Anything short of that commitment is just a hope that some fintech magic wands will transform clients into winners and advisors into heroes. We know better. See you at the Old School.

Steve Gresham is on a mission to improve “retirement.” He leads an industry initiative, Next Chapter, and is CEO of consulting firm the Execution Project LLC. He is also senior educational advisor to the Alliance for Lifetime Income. Formerly head of Fidelity’s Private Client Group, he is the author of five books about wealth management, including The New Advisor for Life.