Autonomous Transformation

CHAPTER 19Beyond Pilot Purgatory

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. The logical premise is that a technology can be “piloted,” the same way a television series is piloted, to test its applicability to the organization. Technology companies and consulting firms have invested heavily within this premise over the years to demonstrate the value of their solutions to potential customers.

A staggering number of these pilots, however, even when they meet the required benchmarks and advance beyond the pilot stage, never make it into production. While the specific data for this is difficult to track down (this is not a metric organizations tend to share publicly), it is commonly understood and referred to across industries, and is directionally represented by the statistic that only 13% of data science projects make it into production.¹

Within the context of a mechanistic worldview, a pilot is a test of the viability of a technology or solution in the same way that a machine would be piloted to demonstrate its value.

But it is more than that.

Pilots within Social Systems

A technology or solution pilot is a social engagement between two or more parties, in which one party is endeavoring to earn the right to do business with another party. Unlike a machine test, which relies solely on the performance of the machine, a technology or solution ...