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In the mid-70's, computer technology began the conquest of American business. The new Information Technology promised phenomenal productivity, paperless offices, and the end of workload drudgery. It seemed this "IT" would bring forth a golden era for both business and workers. Yet, from 1973 to 1990 growth and productivity in the U.S. averaged 0.7%, compared to 2.5% from 1948-73. In the past decade paper consumption rose from 87 million to 99 million tons per year. My friend, an anthropologist, tells me the average workweek for a Roman Citizen circa 100 AD was about 38 hours. The average week for a Silicon Valley tech-warrior is over 60 hours. And overall discretionary time for Americans has dropped by more than 20% in the past two decades. Hmmm... What's wrong with this picture? As John Seely Brown, director of Xerox PARC, and Paul Duguid, UC Berkeley social theorist point out in their new book, "The Social Life of Information," we are now living in a technology productivity gap. The digitalization of industry and information, like the introduction of electrical power and the beginnings of telephony, creates more work than it initially relieves. And with all our commitment to high-speed, we are still faced with the fact that conversion of technological revolution to practical use is still measured in scores of years, not a few business quarters. Government reports and financial analysts are not helping. Measuring output of data and raw computing power skews productivity statistics to the positive. That's like measuring your health by how much food the larder will hold and how fast you can eat. With all the Internet hype, the dizzying IPO's, and plethora of LAN's, laptops and mobile phones, executives find it hard to approach yet alone confront the question: When is Information Technology simply not enough? Let me suggest that your ability to dance with that question may be an incredible management edge whether you are a supplier or customer of IT. Here are a couple of thoughts to help you keep time with the music and not tangle your feet. Let's consider what any technology really is, and then look at the myth of information. Technology, really. First, technology is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Check a dictionary. "Technology" can be summarized as the application of science and engineering to the practical ends of providing people with the material objects of their civilization. Ultimately, any technology and its instruments are only tools to assist human beings in satisfying their survival and self-expression. However, when a new technology is introduced into society, we tend to focus on the technology itself rather than its ultimate purpose or tool-ness. And modern folk seem mesmerized by speed and quantity. In our mantra of "More faster is better", we forget the other three standards of usefulness: ease, certainty and relevance. The ultimate benchmark for a tool is not that it allows you to do more, faster. Rather, it is if a tool allows you to obtain what you truly want and need easier and with greater reliability and consistency. Since its inception, computer technology has been most effective when applied to linear, quantifiable, or repetitive tasks. Hence its success at vastly improving shipping, billing, scheduling, and collating large amounts of data. Any business endeavor that relies on strict adherence to simple rules can be improved through computerization. However, when applied to even the most mundane areas requiring meaning, knowledge and flexibility, such as R&D or management practices, IT in its present evolution falls woefully short. And human beings are all about meaning, knowledge and flexibility. Therefore, the extent to which IT interfaces directly with humans is the extent to which it is simply not enough. But at first blush, it is the technology that seems to be surging forward while humans are lagging behind. A common belief (excuse) of new technology innovators is that their products are well designed and the user is at fault if he can't make it work. Also, most innovators believe their technology is far more capable and reliable than it actually is. But, as anyone who has ever tried to install a software update knows, capable and reliable aren't there yet. Historically, no technology has ever succeeded if it demanded that humans only adapt to it. Rather, the technology needed to alter to fit both the needs and whims of humans. And it needed to do that consistently. Call it the socialization of technology. A useful concept in this "socialization" is something called transparency. A tool becomes transparent when it no longer draws attention (i.e., energy and effort) to itself. Hammers are useful when they are easy to hold and light enough to swing many times. Right now you are reading. But you are not paying attention to each printed letter itself. So, lettering in writing and reading has become "transparent" to you. You go right through it to get at what you want (in this case, comprehension). In other words, it is so easy that you don't even notice it. And the letters joining into words then into sentences that have meaning is consistent and reliable enough that you trust your understanding. Hence ease and certainty create printed letters: transparency. The same holds true for the electrification of your home. Even for your automobile. We drive every day paying absolutely no attention to the fact that there are hundreds of volatile, gaseous explosions occurring every minute, within three feet of our kneecaps. It's called an internal combustion engine, and it's transparent to us. Until it breaks down. Breakdowns destroy transparency. You don't notice the pencil until the lead breaks or the eraser smudges. Phones are transparent to conversation until you can't get a dial tone or the static overcomes the conversation. Too many breakdowns in too short a use period and people no longer trust the tool. In its interface with humans the new technology is still too rife with glitches and breakdowns to approach transparency. Ultimately, the killer app or magic box will not be measured by speed and capacity, but rather by its ease of use and consistent delivery of what is truly wanted and needed by us human folk. Which brings me to a quick cut at this phenomena called "information". Information Myth. To a certain degree all technology is an extension or enhancement of the human organism. Motors replace muscle power. Electric lights allow us to see in the dark. Writing "freezes" and stores language. Computer technology is an enhancement and replacement for brain processes. CD's and hard drives for memory. Chips for calculations. Many of these functions are faster and more reliable in computers, especially where high-speed endurance, impeccable repetition, or strict rule adherence is required. However, the pivotal problem lies in the fact that humans seek knowledge not information. Just as data alone does not equal information; information is not knowledge. There are fundamental distinctions between information and knowledge. Information can sit on a CD or spreadsheet; knowledge only resides in a human head. Information transfers easily and quickly; knowledge requires time and effort. Information collates and replicates; knowledge generalizes, transforms and creates. Knowledge requires commitment to learning and making meaning. Information is largely independent of meaning. And while information loves rules, knowledge seems to grow by breaking them. But in IT the prevailing myth is that more information, faster, generates knowledge. However, more information delivered faster doesn't create knowledge. And too much information too fast is the ultimate violation of ease and certainty (as anyone who has suffered through a voicemail cascade-option structure can tell you). Thanks to IT, we are buried in information. Yet, IT's only solution is to supply us with even more information and faster. You don't understand the Help Page? Click on the information About Help button. That's a bit like standing in a boat, throwing towels to a drowning man. So, the next time you are tempted by the siren call of more information faster.... The next time you're thrown to the latest IT gadget or process.... The next time you are torn between paying for staff or computer networks.... The next time you need to know if the technology is really enough, ignore the claims of faster and more.... Better ask these questions: How will this technology allow us to get what we really want easier and with more certainty? What's the breakdown rate here? How transparent is this tool? How will it facilitate my staff and me in gaining knowledge, rather than just information? What will it help us to learn to be, not just learn about? What's more important here, people or the technology? And don't for one moment let anybody tell you that we are already in the "knowledge economy". We are a good ways off from that paradigm. Meanwhile, in a stormy ocean of information, human learning and knowledge may be the only safe island and "tool transparency" the safest voyage. A voyage to that island could very well be your executive edge. PS: You might want to read The Social Life of Information, by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid, © 2000. Or Audio-Tech Business Book Summaries distributes an excellent audiotape and written summation, and can be found at www.audiotech.com. (NOTE: Allies Consulting offers a menu of programs that can help you become masterful at your performance skills, or your staff to do so. They will meet or exceed your expectations: they are designed to deliver real results. They also leverage our other programs, magnifying your ROI!)
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