August 18, 2025 • 8 mins
Back again for the last installment of this story! Here's the season finale of Tim Flower's brand new IT mystery series, Parallel.Â
Knowledge is power—until you forget.
In the midst of troubleshooting performance and productivity issues, the team at Zentech found yet another problem – Employees struggling with constant change and not able to leverage the apps they need to get their job done. Across industries, employees are struggling with the relentless pace of technology changes, especially with AI. And I’ve seen it as I travel the world talking with executives and tech leaders – they’re all concerned not only with IT’s ability to transform quickly, without breakage, but also with their employee’s ability to keep up with the pace and volume of change. Training sessions forgotten, new systems replacing old ones overnight, and IT teams overwhelmed with employees who simply can’t keep up. At Zentech, the story is no different.
Join us as we investigate the unseen breakdown of knowledge retention and the chaos it leaves behind - in Episode 5 - The Forgotten.
Starring the Reality Bytes crew: Tim Flower, Tom McGrath, Meghan Brake, Oriana Ott, Sean Malvey, and Kathryn Shea.
Knowledge is power—until you forget.
In the midst of troubleshooting performance and productivity issues, the team at Zentech found yet another problem – Employees struggling with constant change and not able to leverage the apps they need to get their job done. Across industries, employees are struggling with the relentless pace of technology changes, especially with AI. And I’ve seen it as I travel the world talking with executives and tech leaders – they’re all concerned not only with IT’s ability to transform quickly, without breakage, but also with their employee’s ability to keep up with the pace and volume of change. Training sessions forgotten, new systems replacing old ones overnight, and IT teams overwhelmed with employees who simply can’t keep up. At Zentech, the story is no different.
Join us as we investigate the unseen breakdown of knowledge retention and the chaos it leaves behind - in Episode 5 - The Forgotten.
Starring the Reality Bytes crew: Tim Flower, Tom McGrath, Meghan Brake, Oriana Ott, Sean Malvey, and Kathryn Shea.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
From Next Think in the creators of the Deck show,
it's parallel one IT story told week by week because
technology problems don't happen in isolation or by themselves to
happen in parallel. I'm tim Flower. Knowledge is power until
it slips through your fingers. Employees are struggling with the
relentless pace of technology changes, especially with AI, and I've
(00:45):
seen it as I travel the world talking with executives
and tech leaders. They're all concerned with not only it's
ability to transform quickly without breakage, but also with their
employee's ability to keep up with the pace and volume
of change. Training sessions are forgotten, new systems replace old
ones overnight, and IT teams are overwhelmed with employees who
(01:07):
simply can't keep up. At zen tech. The story is
no different. In the midst of troubleshooting performance and productivity issues,
they found yet another problem. Employees weren't using the new
features in their apps, and worse, they weren't telling anyone.
If you think fifty percent reporting is a bad statistic
on helpdesk calls, the Deck's team found that employees with
(01:30):
change fatigue were calling for help even less close to never.
This week, we investigate the unseen breakdown of knowledge retention
and the chaos it leaves behind. In episode five, The Forgotten.
It started with a simple question from it leadership at
zen Tech, why are we seeing so many tickets for
(01:52):
basic how to issues? At first, the assumption seemed obvious
user error. Employees weren't following in streng aductions, or they
weren't paying attention to training and then weren't using the
systems correctly. But as the decks team looked deeper, a
pattern emerged.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
This wasn't like the reboot defenders. This was strange. They
weren't new hires, you know, struggling to learn their tools.
It was everyone, senior employees, even high performers. They weren't
making mistakes because they were careless. They just couldn't remember
how to do certain things after all the changes.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Pam was right, this was strange, and Jessica noted that
it wasn't just the business who couldn't keep up with
remembering in the midst of all this information overload. It
was struggling too.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Some of our employees admit they had forgotten how to
perform basic functions, and others had just miskey updates and
a flood of corporate communications. Our vendor platforms changed so
fast even when it struggled to keep up.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Sometimes I stopped over to see Susan, a longtime employee
at zen Tech that we've talked with before.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Every time I log in, something's different, the button's move,
the minus change, and no one tells us what's new
until we're already stuck. I used to feel like an expert,
but now I feel like I'm guessing.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
And traditional training models the team has used for years
weren't built for this level of change. Zenech's IT team
rolled out updates, scheduled training, sent out email reminders, and
then assumed people would adapt. But they didn't, and the
reasons were tough to get to. Terrence is the training
manager at zen Tech.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
The problem is we're teaching people how to use the
tools on day one, and by day thirty, the tools
have changed. The training manuals are outdated before they're even published.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
The company was facing a paradox. Employees were trained, but
they weren't enabled. The information was there somewhere, but people
either couldn't find it, didn't remember it, or had no
time to relearn it on the fly. Fred the dex's
team leader started to zero in on the issue.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
We realized the issue wasn't just knowledge, it was access
to knowledge. People that need a ninety minute training from
six months ago. They need the right answer right now
in the moment they're stuck.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Employees who can't do their jobs efficiently don't just struggle,
They disengage. Frustration builds, productivity drops, and in some cases,
employees start looking for jobs somewhere else. I talked with Meg,
who leads HR at Zentec, and she had some observations
that back this up.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
We saw an interesting correlation in our most recent reporting.
Employees who submitted the most IT related complaints also had
the highest attrition rates. When people feel like they can't
keep up or get their job done well, they stress
out and then they check out, first mentally and then physically.
And it's no small effort or cost to replace people
these days.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
But it's not just about employee retention, it's about operational efficiency.
The DEX team found the teams were losing entire workdays
to technology struggles that were completely avoidable. Finance seemed to
be an area that struggled more than most For some reason.
I talked with Rory, the finance manager.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
We have deadlines that aren't wasting hours every week just
trying to figure out how to access the right systems.
We can't afford that kind of inefficiency.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Zentech needed to rethink its approach to training and fast.
The DEX team proposed a shift from traditional point in
time training to real time, on the fly embedded learning.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
We'd stop thinking about training as an event and started
thinking about it as a process, sure continuous in context guidance,
bite sized tutorials, and most critically, using proactive communication before
the change has happened. So we'd embedded tricks and process
(06:01):
reminds us right inside the apps users are on. In
addition to that formal training, we met them with information
where they were instead of just externally, and we couldn't
have done it without the visibility and analysis of best
struggles from a DEX platform.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I followed up with Meg from HR offline, and she
told me that for her teams in HR, the difference
was night and day. Instead of hunting through old PDFs
or waiting on it for answers, they got simple, quick
answers right inside the tools they were already using. Meg
noted that this wasn't just zentex problem. Across industries in
(06:42):
her network. Companies are pushing out more technology than employees
can absorb, and as the digital landscape evolves with AI,
the gap between technology and human adaptability keeps widening.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
We're all in a constant state of change and it's
only cceleting. So if companies don't rethink how they can
support employees through that change, they're setting themselves up for failure.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
The takeaway training isn't enough. Employees need just in time, knowledge,
clear communication, and systems that evolve without leaving them behind.
Because when the tools move faster than the people using them,
businesses lose more than productivity, they lose their people. So
(07:32):
as we close out our first set of visits and
analysis of issues at zen Tech, the DEX team has
been clear with us. They've made a ton of progress
finding the killers of productivity, but there's more going on
here that needs investigation. How does Zentech get a handle
on the outsider influence on stability or find the impact
of failed transformations? Like the foundation and bigger picture, what
(07:56):
happens when bad it goes beyond the walls of the business.
Zenec's customer experience team has uncovered a troubling link between
internal technology struggles and external reputational damage. So don't miss
the future exploration of these and other mysteries. Because it
(08:16):
problems don't happen in Cereal, they happen in parallel
From Next Think in the creators of the Deck show,
it's parallel one IT story told week by week because
technology problems don't happen in isolation or by themselves to
happen in parallel. I'm tim Flower. Knowledge is power until
it slips through your fingers. Employees are struggling with the
relentless pace of technology changes, especially with AI, and I've
(00:45):
seen it as I travel the world talking with executives
and tech leaders. They're all concerned with not only it's
ability to transform quickly without breakage, but also with their
employee's ability to keep up with the pace and volume
of change. Training sessions are forgotten, new systems replace old
ones overnight, and IT teams are overwhelmed with employees who
(01:07):
simply can't keep up. At zen tech. The story is
no different. In the midst of troubleshooting performance and productivity issues,
they found yet another problem. Employees weren't using the new
features in their apps, and worse, they weren't telling anyone.
If you think fifty percent reporting is a bad statistic
on helpdesk calls, the Deck's team found that employees with
(01:30):
change fatigue were calling for help even less close to never.
This week, we investigate the unseen breakdown of knowledge retention
and the chaos it leaves behind. In episode five, The Forgotten.
It started with a simple question from it leadership at
zen Tech, why are we seeing so many tickets for
(01:52):
basic how to issues? At first, the assumption seemed obvious
user error. Employees weren't following in streng aductions, or they
weren't paying attention to training and then weren't using the
systems correctly. But as the decks team looked deeper, a
pattern emerged.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
This wasn't like the reboot defenders. This was strange. They
weren't new hires, you know, struggling to learn their tools.
It was everyone, senior employees, even high performers. They weren't
making mistakes because they were careless. They just couldn't remember
how to do certain things after all the changes.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Pam was right, this was strange, and Jessica noted that
it wasn't just the business who couldn't keep up with
remembering in the midst of all this information overload. It
was struggling too.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Some of our employees admit they had forgotten how to
perform basic functions, and others had just miskey updates and
a flood of corporate communications. Our vendor platforms changed so
fast even when it struggled to keep up.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Sometimes I stopped over to see Susan, a longtime employee
at zen Tech that we've talked with before.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Every time I log in, something's different, the button's move,
the minus change, and no one tells us what's new
until we're already stuck. I used to feel like an expert,
but now I feel like I'm guessing.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
And traditional training models the team has used for years
weren't built for this level of change. Zenech's IT team
rolled out updates, scheduled training, sent out email reminders, and
then assumed people would adapt. But they didn't, and the
reasons were tough to get to. Terrence is the training
manager at zen Tech.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
The problem is we're teaching people how to use the
tools on day one, and by day thirty, the tools
have changed. The training manuals are outdated before they're even published.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
The company was facing a paradox. Employees were trained, but
they weren't enabled. The information was there somewhere, but people
either couldn't find it, didn't remember it, or had no
time to relearn it on the fly. Fred the dex's
team leader started to zero in on the issue.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
We realized the issue wasn't just knowledge, it was access
to knowledge. People that need a ninety minute training from
six months ago. They need the right answer right now
in the moment they're stuck.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Employees who can't do their jobs efficiently don't just struggle,
They disengage. Frustration builds, productivity drops, and in some cases,
employees start looking for jobs somewhere else. I talked with Meg,
who leads HR at Zentec, and she had some observations
that back this up.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
We saw an interesting correlation in our most recent reporting.
Employees who submitted the most IT related complaints also had
the highest attrition rates. When people feel like they can't
keep up or get their job done well, they stress
out and then they check out, first mentally and then physically.
And it's no small effort or cost to replace people
these days.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
But it's not just about employee retention, it's about operational efficiency.
The DEX team found the teams were losing entire workdays
to technology struggles that were completely avoidable. Finance seemed to
be an area that struggled more than most For some reason.
I talked with Rory, the finance manager.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
We have deadlines that aren't wasting hours every week just
trying to figure out how to access the right systems.
We can't afford that kind of inefficiency.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Zentech needed to rethink its approach to training and fast.
The DEX team proposed a shift from traditional point in
time training to real time, on the fly embedded learning.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
We'd stop thinking about training as an event and started
thinking about it as a process, sure continuous in context guidance,
bite sized tutorials, and most critically, using proactive communication before
the change has happened. So we'd embedded tricks and process
(06:01):
reminds us right inside the apps users are on. In
addition to that formal training, we met them with information
where they were instead of just externally, and we couldn't
have done it without the visibility and analysis of best
struggles from a DEX platform.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I followed up with Meg from HR offline, and she
told me that for her teams in HR, the difference
was night and day. Instead of hunting through old PDFs
or waiting on it for answers, they got simple, quick
answers right inside the tools they were already using. Meg
noted that this wasn't just zentex problem. Across industries in
(06:42):
her network. Companies are pushing out more technology than employees
can absorb, and as the digital landscape evolves with AI,
the gap between technology and human adaptability keeps widening.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
We're all in a constant state of change and it's
only cceleting. So if companies don't rethink how they can
support employees through that change, they're setting themselves up for failure.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
The takeaway training isn't enough. Employees need just in time, knowledge,
clear communication, and systems that evolve without leaving them behind.
Because when the tools move faster than the people using them,
businesses lose more than productivity, they lose their people. So
(07:32):
as we close out our first set of visits and
analysis of issues at zen Tech, the DEX team has
been clear with us. They've made a ton of progress
finding the killers of productivity, but there's more going on
here that needs investigation. How does Zentech get a handle
on the outsider influence on stability or find the impact
of failed transformations? Like the foundation and bigger picture, what
(07:56):
happens when bad it goes beyond the walls of the business.
Zenec's customer experience team has uncovered a troubling link between
internal technology struggles and external reputational damage. So don't miss
the future exploration of these and other mysteries. Because it
(08:16):
problems don't happen in Cereal, they happen in parallel
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.