Postlogue:
Create a Strategic Partnership with Technology

Probably the greatest change-related shift that has occurred in the last 100 years has been the advent and increase of technology. It is difficult to open the daily newspaper without seeing some reference to technology and the effect it is having on the way work is accomplished.

If you happened to grow up in a school where computers were not integrated into the curriculum, and if your parents did not have at least one computer in your home, changes in this arena may be particularly challenging for you.

With that thought in mind, the following actions are designed to help you overcome and navigate the particular challenges associated with technology.

For many, technology is a pain in a place where they would just as soon not have a pain. For others, technology is seen as a tool—much in the same way that the telephone, automobile, or a well-sharpened pencil is.

Whatever your perspective on technology, abandoning any resistance toward it is essential. While you may be resisting technology, others (including many of your competitors) are welcoming technology and determining how it can be useful in operating their businesses more efficiently and effectively.

You should join them.

There are numerous means of getting a grip on technology. A few of those means will be discussed in the pages that follow.

There are those who absolutely love technology. They are the ones who wait for Steve Jobs’ periodic introduction of Apple’s latest technological wizardry, and who applaud the new toy enthusiastically.

They are also the ones who can help you use this new capability effectively in your business.

Find them. Take them to lunch. Exchange goods or services from your field of expertise for goods or services within their technology expertise.

There are a number of areas within the use of technology that are quite accessible, even to the most squeamish of technology users. By taking on one of these, developing your expertise there, and utilizing this area of technology, you decrease your apprehension in the use of technology and you increase the breadth of impact you can have through the use of technology.

A few areas that might not be too challenging in the beginning:

1.  Write an e-mail;

2.  Write a blog;

3.  Develop a website;

4.  Change the website;

5.  Add some form of technology to your website (a questionnaire, audio or video samples).

…and pick something else off the short list. Once you have completed the actions identified, new technology will be in place and you can add it to your list.

In relatively short order, you, too, may be a technology geek.