It is important to start with the right mindset when it comes to using technology. The truth is, including technology in our working life could make it worse. It can cause a feeling that there are new barriers of understanding and skill that are required to work in a new way; this is true. But if used correctly, technology could maximise human potential, execute the repetitive tasks for us, simplify complicated tasks, and bring back the joy of the work we started with in the first place.
Technology must simplify our life, not complicate it. It must free us up to be more relational. We build on what Issy Sharp, founder of the Four Seasons Hotel, said:
The same piece of technology could be applied in healthy and unhealthy ways. It is up to us to use technology as an enabler of our goals, and not as a destructive tool. Let’s look at a quick example where the same piece of technology, one we’re all very familiar with, is used in a good and a bad way.
Let’s take mobile phones as an example:
Used in good way: Through the use of mobile phones we can stay in touch with our loved ones.
Used destructively: While we may be close to friends and family, mobile phones could be a distraction and make us feel further away.
This is a simple example to illustrate that technology is not inherently bad or limiting. If we use it wisely, it can make us more relational, it can free us up, it can bring an increase in quality and efficiency and a decrease in cost.
So when is it a good idea? Let’s jump in to discover when and where to use which technology.