The 30s CTO Reset: Why January Decides Adoption

Transformation doesn’t move when plans are shared. It moves when friction is removed.

Author

Glenda Carnate
January 20, 2026

Read time: 2.5 minutes

At the beginning of the year, we have momentum for new ideas, but we usually don’t have a lot of will to make significant changes. After week one or two of January, we’ve run out of energy, and we start looking for reasons why things aren't going as planned.

When teams see that no one is taking action to implement the new roadmap or change how things are done, they lose interest. As a result, the teams that will succeed will start to see people taking advantage of the situation in weeks three and four; however, if management does not take any steps to enforce the new rules or make sure that management takes the initiative to change the old processes, the adoption will decrease.

These are the elements that make January pivotal:

  • Intervening sooner than is comfortable.

  • Ending "temporary" exceptions sooner than needed.

  • Making a hard dependency move at least once.

  • Enforcing before over-explaining.

  • Noticing what is tolerated within teams.

None of these things requires a new framework, but rather requires action on the part of leaders.

💡Key Takeaway: 

In January, Adoption is decided upon when teams continue to observe the adoption process closely. The systems utilised now to implement adoption smoothly and with the fewest barriers in the transition create a vision of expected practice for the team by enabling them to begin to see the difference as they begin using tasks necessary for the kickoff or adoption preparation stages.

👉 LIKE this post if you haven’t noticed your company’s rate of adoption changing dramatically after an initial push.

👉 SUBSCRIBE now to read more about how to apply transformation to your company.

👉 Follow Glenda Carnate for updates as well as information related to CTO perspectives regarding systems, enforcement and scaling.

👉 COMMENT on what exception your team continues giving to.

👉 SHARE this with someone who believes that alignment creates adoption.

Reply

or to participate.