New research from the MIT Sloan School of Management published in the journal Organization Science, found that when bringing technologies into the workplace, it pays to be realistic. Often, for instance, bringing new digital technology into an organization does not radically improve a firm’s operations. Despite high-level planning, a more frequent result is the messy process of frontline employees figuring out how they can get tech tools to help them to some degree.

That task can easily fall on overburdened workers who have to grapple with getting things done, but don’t always have much voice in an organization. So, the researchers asked, “isn’t there a way to think systematically about implementing digital technology in the workplace?”

As explained in the new study, MIT Professor Kate Kellogg thinks there is, and she calls it “experimentalist governance of digital technology.” That mean, “Let different parts of an organization experiment with the technology - and then centrally remove roadblocks to adopt the best practices that emerge, firm wide.”

Kellogg say, “If you want to get value out of new digital technology, you need to allow local teams to adapt the technology to their setting. You also need to form a central group that’s tracking all these local experiments and revising processes in response to problems and possibilities. If you just let everyone do everything locally, you’re going to see resistance to the technology, particularly among frontline employees.”

Kellogg’s perspective is based on an 18-month close ethnographic study of a teaching hospital, examining many facets of its daily workings - including things like the integration of technology into everyday medical practices.

Kellogg hopes the concept of experimentalist governance could be used widely to help harness promising-but-imperfect digital technology adoption. It could also apply, she suggests, to banks, law firms, and all kinds of businesses using various forms of enterprise software to streamline processes such as human resources management, customer support, and email marketing.

What’s the bottom line? When we engage in digital transformation, we want to encourage experimentation, but we also need some kind of central governance. It’s a way to solve problems that are being experienced locally and make sure that successful experiments can be diffused. A lot of people talk about digital technology as being either good or bad. But neither the technology itself nor the type of work being done dictates its impact. What this research shows is that organizations need an experimentalist governance process in place to make digital technology beneficial for both managers and workers.