Putting Technology In Perspective

Technology has certainly done wonders for all of us in the Sales and Marketing professions.  Personally I love technology and using the latest and greatest tools.  I use many of them and have extracted a ton of value from them.  In fact. I've written about the underutilization of great sales and marketing tools.

At some point though, we (including me) need to get back to a more balanced approach.  Balanced between people, process and technology ... almost on a 1/3 : 1/3 : 1/3 basis.

I was watching a 60 Minutes segment with Prince Charles this past Sunday and something he said struck a chord with me.  He made a statement along that lines that in many regards technology has destroyed our socialization skills, our sense of human-ness.  My thought was that technology didn't do this but the way in which we use, and rely upon, technology has.

In the people/process/technology triad, my experience is that the people part of that equation is the most important part AND it has been the first-to-go as we become more technology reliant.  This applies equally, if not more so, at the management level than at the individual contributor level. Additionally, people skills are the most difficult to master and improve upon.  Whenever I don't feel like trying to work on "people" guess what I do?  I play around with technology.  So much so that my 1/3:1/3:1/3 balance is tilted way too much toward technology.

The challenge is getting us back to a state of equilibrium.

A good friend of mine, Kevin Ashworth, sent this to me the other day.  It talks a little bit about how relationships and friends used to be such an integral part of our lives:
Download TO_ALL_THE_KIDS_WHO_SURVIVED.doc (24.5K)

Comments

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[Online pharmacy]

Chris ... great comments. Don't even get me started on IMs.

[Affiliate Marketing Network]

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[micky]

It has recently come to my attention that the redirect is the only feature Platinum has over the Technology In Perspective...good post...

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[Matt]

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[Paul Brown]

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[Shailesh Naik]

Technology is a media of communication . Whether it helps to socialize across continents or gets people away from each other in terms of physical interaction is a debate GEN NEXT ( future consumers ) feel more comfortable in interacting thru this media . They in future will buy , sell etc more thru tech media . So we all need to be ready for this change too

[Scott Jones]

Chris ... great comments. Don't even get me started on IMs. Great for quick thoughts for people located remotely. Not designed for conversation and in fact almost ensures a real conversation won't take place. It's almost like we are scared to actually talk and relate to one another. Perhaps it's an insecurity issue?

[Chris Hamoen]

Reminds me of the late 90's, when people started to believe that everyone would purchase online, increasing the value of marketing, and negating the need for a traditional field sales rep. Relationships are still very important! On another note - what do you think about co-workers IM'ing each other when they are 10 ft away?