The power of showing the system being built

I've led organizational change for 7 separate Workday deployments spanning every HCM module (Core HR, Recruiting, Talent Management, Benefits Administration, Payroll, Time Tracking and Absence, and Workforce Planning and Analytics) as well as Finance and Procurement, across implementations in nearly 20 countries. One technique I've never done a project without: showing the system as it's being built.

Tell: Workday is a best-in-class provider of human resource management applications.

Show: Let's walk through the system today so you can see how easy it is to use Global Search, the apps, and org charts to find what you need most.

The difference between those two sentences is the difference between information and belief.

Behavioral science is consistent on this point: people process what they're told, but they believe what they experience. When stakeholders can see the system, navigate it, and react to it in real time, uncertainty becomes something they can name and work with. Vague resistance becomes specific and addressable.

This is why showing the system as it's being built is one of the highest-leverage stakeholder engagement techniques available to leaders during a technology deployment.

What demos actually accomplish

In a technology deployment, demos are not presentations. They're behavioral interventions. They do three things no amount of communication can replicate:

1. They build ownership in your core team. Leading a demo requires a team member to translate the system's features into plain language — to make the change impacts real for themselves before they can make them real for anyone else. This is how project ownership gets built from the inside out.
2. They surface resistance early. Seeing the system gives stakeholders a concrete object for their uncertainty. Doubt that was previously abstract — "I'm not sure about this" —becomes something specific: "I'm concerned about how this changes my team's approval workflow." That's workable. Abstract resistance isn't.
3. They create feedback loops. A well-facilitated demo generates real input on configuration priorities, communication needs, and training gaps before go-live, when you can still act on it.

Making demos work: what leaders need to know

Using demos throughout the build and test process requires some care. A few principles that hold across every deployment I've been part of:

The system needs to be stable enough. But not perfect. Don't start demos before key configuration decisions have been made. But don't wait for a finished product. Start with the basics of navigation and core experience, and set the expectation that demos will be iterative. Let stakeholders see progress happening in real time. Some will be uncomfortable with the imperfection; that discomfort is worth naming directly rather than avoiding.

Your project team members should lead the demos, not the implementation consultants. This is not a sales pitch. It's an exercise in ownership. When a workstream lead walks their peers through the system, it signals that your organization is driving this change. Rotating presenters so each lead demonstrates their own area builds fluency across the team and creates multiple visible champions before go-live.

Tone matters. With your core team early on, keep it informal and collegial. This should feel like a working session, not a performance. As demos extend to broader leadership audiences, the format can become more structured. For key senior leaders, a one-on-one demo can be worth the investment: it builds their confidence to speak knowledgeably about the system before it goes live.

Go slow. Stakeholders need time to absorb what they're seeing and formulate questions. Pause deliberately. In virtual settings, chat functionality lets people ask questions without interrupting the presenter. Prompt with specific questions: What feature are you most excited about? Which option would you use to find a task? What do you want to see more of? Questions generate feedback. Feedback generates investment.

The behavioral principle underneath all of this

What makes demos work isn't novelty. It's the basic behavioral reality that seeing creates a different kind of knowing. When you show the system being built, you're not informing stakeholders. You're giving them an experience that shifts their relationship to the change.

This is the same principle behind relationship-based learning more broadly. Formal training accounts for only 10% of how adults actually learn. The other 90 percent happens through experience and interaction, and demos are one of the most efficient ways to create both within the constraints of a project timeline.

Updated May 2026 to reframe for senior leaders sponsoring technology deployments, add behavioral science context for why demos drive adoption, and update offers and cross-references.

If you're leading a technology deployment and want a framework for building the behavioral conditions that drive adoption, start with Inspired by Fear: Becoming a Courageous Change Leader. If you're ready to develop this capability across your leadership team, explore The changecapable Leadership Program.

Related reading

• How to improve transformation execution: 5 proven strategies. See Case Studies 1 and 4 for real examples of demos used to surface resistance and build stakeholder buy-in
• Your training plan is reaching only 10% of learners. The behavioral science behind why relationship-based learning outperforms formal training
• What's different about Workday that changes your change management. How Workday's structure supports this kind of stakeholder engagement throughout the deployment
• The Influence Stack. The change leadership maturation process

Photo by Ales Nesetril on Unsplash