Member since December 2025
Donna P. Mitchell is The Transformation Authority™ — Forbes Business Council Member, published author, and CEO of Mitchell Universal Network, LLC. Her core insight: 70% of technology transformations fail — not because the technology doesn't work, but because the adoption strategy doesn't.
With 49 years across regulated industries — telecommunications, aviation, airline management, healthcare and pharmaceutical, and emerging technology — she has enabled 150,000+ professionals through enterprise-scale technology adoption and organizational transformation. Her experience spans four transformation types — divestiture, deregulation, digital transformation, and emerging technology adoption — giving executives a perspective no single-industry advisor can offer.
She has lived the human side of adoption through every major technology wave — from the Bell System to blockchain. That cross-industry pattern recognition is what separates firsthand experience from theory.
She is the author of Pivoting to Technology Adoption: Mind the Gap (Amazon, 2026), a Forbes Business Council Member, a Senior Executive Healthcare Think Tank Member, and a C-Suite Network Contributor. She hosts the IAB-certified podcast Pivoting to Technology Adoption — 120+ episodes with listeners in 64 countries.
Donna delivers keynotes, executive briefings, workshops, and executive advisory engagements — teaching corporate, healthcare, and mission-driven leaders how to close the technology adoption gap before it closes their budgets.
Watching the lightbulb moment when executives realize their transformation isn't failing because of technology — it's failing because of adoption. I've spent 49 years learning how to close that gap, and nothing energizes me more than teaching leaders to see what they've been missing.
I led the Interline Electronic Ticketing project at US Airways in joint development with United Airlines — an industry-first that enabled airlines to process tickets across carriers electronically. We were building that infrastructure in 2000-2001, right before 9/11 changed aviation forever. When you're responsible for systems that must work during the industry's most turbulent period, you learn what adoption actually requires. That's the discipline I bring to every engagement.
I started my career in 1977 at Bell System — before the internet, before email, before most people had computers on their desks. I lived through divestiture, deregulation, mergers, acquisitions, digital transformation, and now artificial intelligence and emerging technology adoption. Teaching leaders how to close the technology adoption gap became my life's work.
Technology adoption doesn't require compromising values. Drawing on decades of enterprise transformation and a Master of Divinity education, this session helps mission-driven leaders implement change while protecting organizational culture and purpose.
Covered: a values-aligned technology evaluation framework, leading change without losing organizational soul, building staff and volunteer buy-in for new systems, and discernment questions for technology decision-making.
Audience: Nonprofit executives, faith-based institution boards, mission-driven organization leaders. 60 to 90 minutes. Delivered remotely worldwide.
Your organization bought the platform. You built the curriculum. People attended, passed the assessment, and went back to their desks. Six weeks later the workaround is the workflow. That gap between deployment and durable use is where roughly 70 percent of technology transformations fail, and it is neither a technology problem nor a training-quality problem. This session walks seven diagnostic questions that locate exactly where adoption leaks, then puts participants to work applying them to a rollout of their own. Everyone leaves with a completed one-page diagnostic and a first move they can make the week they return.
Audience: Chief learning officers, VPs of learning and development, customer success and enablement leaders, health system leadership. Formats: keynote, half-day workshop, or multi-session cohort. Delivered remotely worldwide.
60-90 minutes | C-Suite & Senior Leadership | Please inquire
Technology investments keep failing at the same rate —70%—whether it's AI, ERP systems, or digital transformation. The technology changes; the failure rate doesn't. This keynote reveals why, and what the 30% who succeed do differently.
Your team will understand:
• Why the 70% failure rate has remained constant for 20+ years
• The three questions that predict transformation success or failure
• How to evaluate technology investments through an adoption lens
• Building the human infrastructure that makes technology work
Ideal for: C-suite executives, VP-level leaders, Board of Directors, transformation teams
70% of technology transformations fail. Not because of the technology — because organizations never close the adoption gap. This book shows you why and how to fix it. By Donna P. Mitchell, The Transformation Authority™. Available in Kindle, Paperback
See What’s Inside
70% of technology transformations fail. This podcast explores why — and how to fix it. Host Donna P. Mitchell, The Transformation Authority™. 49 years across regulated industries. 120+ episodes. 64 countries. IAB-certified. Forbes Business Council.
Listen NowI led the Interline Electronic Ticketing project at US Airways in joint development with United Airlines — an industry-first that enabled airlines to process tickets across carriers electronically. We were building that infrastructure in 2000-2001, right before 9/11 changed aviation forever. When you're responsible for systems that must work during the industry's most turbulent period, you learn what adoption actually requires. That's the discipline I bring to every engagement.
I started my career in 1977 at Bell System — before the internet, before email, before most people had computers on their desks. I lived through divestiture, deregulation, mergers, acquisitions, digital transformation, and now artificial intelligence and emerging technology adoption. Teaching leaders how to close the technology adoption gap became my life's work.
Technology adoption doesn't require compromising values. Drawing on decades of enterprise transformation and a Master of Divinity education, this session helps mission-driven leaders implement change while protecting organizational culture and purpose.
Covered: a values-aligned technology evaluation framework, leading change without losing organizational soul, building staff and volunteer buy-in for new systems, and discernment questions for technology decision-making.
Audience: Nonprofit executives, faith-based institution boards, mission-driven organization leaders. 60 to 90 minutes. Delivered remotely worldwide.
Your organization bought the platform. You built the curriculum. People attended, passed the assessment, and went back to their desks. Six weeks later the workaround is the workflow. That gap between deployment and durable use is where roughly 70 percent of technology transformations fail, and it is neither a technology problem nor a training-quality problem. This session walks seven diagnostic questions that locate exactly where adoption leaks, then puts participants to work applying them to a rollout of their own. Everyone leaves with a completed one-page diagnostic and a first move they can make the week they return.
Audience: Chief learning officers, VPs of learning and development, customer success and enablement leaders, health system leadership. Formats: keynote, half-day workshop, or multi-session cohort. Delivered remotely worldwide.
60-90 minutes | C-Suite & Senior Leadership | Please inquire
Technology investments keep failing at the same rate —70%—whether it's AI, ERP systems, or digital transformation. The technology changes; the failure rate doesn't. This keynote reveals why, and what the 30% who succeed do differently.
Your team will understand:
• Why the 70% failure rate has remained constant for 20+ years
• The three questions that predict transformation success or failure
• How to evaluate technology investments through an adoption lens
• Building the human infrastructure that makes technology work
Ideal for: C-suite executives, VP-level leaders, Board of Directors, transformation teams
