Workers often have mixed attitudes toward new technologies they interact with, especially when the full effects of a technology take time to become clear. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews of clinicians and managers from the intensive care units of a large academic medical center. We used Argyris’ Ladder of Inference, a model well established in organizational behavior theory but rarely applied in healthcare systems, to understand differences in their perspectives around a new patient positioning technology. We identified two main ladders: one which inferred the technology supports helpful processes such as quality improvement, and another which inferred it leads to tampering and individual workarounds. Ladders of inference helped organize contrasting attitudes toward the technology and provided insights about how technologies and the people who use them should be managed.