What are some challenges that get in the way of your automation projects or initiatives, and how do you overcome them?

We definitely see some of those aspects too. How have you seen success in getting stakeholder buy in?

The success depends on how well you position/present it. If you position IT/Automation as their helper and say that IT has a way to speed up the process so they can do more at the same time (it helps if you know a few other tasks that they struggle to do on time so you can put them as examples that this way they will have time to finish X, Y and Z on time) vs. hey, we can scrip it so it's done automatically (which is implying that, well we don't need you or you have no skills/additional value.  I get the information from the employees that do the work i.e get the facts and what is their challenge but then talk to the department head on the topic of how can IT help you and your team. Once you have a buy-in from the department head, you identify champion in the department, someone that is usually exited for trying new things, energize that person and let him spread the word and awesomeness of the automation to the team

Agreed. When there’s so much change happening it can be frustrating and deflating for a lot of folks especially if the purpose for change hasn’t been communicated or if embracing change isn’t part of the culture. That said, even positive change time and energy over time.