Organizations often adopt, though not successfully implement, innovations that require widespread frontline participation to realize their full benefits. To better understand the mechanisms that support or inhibit the implementation of such innovations, we apply constructs from organizational learning theory to the case of implementing innovation in schools, and operationalize those constructs in a computational, agent-based model. Model analysis reveals that individual-level improvement before the decision to adopt an innovation can lead to an unanticipated side effect – the elimination of work activities needed to support the implementation phase of the adoption process. We demonstrate how this side effect can impede frontline implementation even when the individuals inside the organization are able and willing to locally implement the constituent tasks of an innovation. We also translate our insights into specific propositions about how the work required by an innovation and an organization’s internal social network relate to the level of frontline implementation in organizations, and suggest managerial leverage points for improving the execution of intentional change efforts.