The Fragile Advantage of Technology

We have so many new tools to help us be productive. Cell phones, Blackberries and other PDAs, we have ever more powerful computers with increasingly sophisticated software tools. The internet itself has incredible capabilities to speed things up. And yet for every benefit there seems to be a number of risks and drawbacks that threaten to equal or outweigh any benefits. For example:

• Email is a great tool for communication. It lets us stay on top of many projects and maintain threads of communication with many more people than would be possible otherwise. The downside is that there may be too much communication. Overuse of the cc function and other junk clutter up mailboxes to the extent that important messages are missed. Email pop-ups also become a constant distraction. Responding quickly to messages interrupts our concentration which in turn dramatically reduces productivity. So does email make us more or less productive overall? (it's too late now - could you ever live without it?)
  
• Blackberries extend email to wherever we happen to be - and it leverages the benefits as well as the problems with email . The are called 'Crackberries' for a reason - they are very hard to ignore. And if other people know you have one, there is a sense of guilt in not responding quickly - they know that you seen the message! Focus and concentration is reduced even further. We've all been in meetings where several people are present but absent - in a Blackberry prayer!
  
• The internet is a powerful tool for business. For the delivery of our services it has become an essential tool to communicate with clients, to organize data and to manage thousands of update requests. For sales and business development it is a powerful tool to conduct research on clients and competitors. But the presence of a web browser on every desk is a great temptation for goofing off. Countless hours are lost to news - sites, weather, Facebook and various other interests.
  
• Technology itself can have huge hidden costs. Computer crashes, hardware and software problems, printer errors and network problems will bring work to a standstill. A few technical glitches can quickly wipe out all the marginal improvements in productivity that all this expensive technology was supposed to realize.
  
• Finally, just because we have the technology installed and working properly, there is no guarantee that we will actually use it to its full potential. Take AutoCAD for example. It used to be with the DOS version that commands were accessed through keyboard shortcuts. When the windows version came out, toolbar buttons were introduced. It turns out that the keyboard commands speed up drafting significantly - but new trainees aren't in the habit of using them. Another example is word processing and email. These tools can greatly boost productivity - but only if you know how to type at a reasonable speed. If you have to get others to do the typing for you, the benefits of technology are lost.
  

  If we are not careful , technology can significantly reduce productivity rather than improve it. But even if we felt that technology had no net benefits, we would still be compelled to use it. We really have no choice in the adoption of technology. Network effects cause the use of technology to be essential. We have to use it to be compatible with the rest of the economy. We have to use CAD and email for no other reason that everyone else is using it.
  

  Rather than seeing technology itself as a source of competitive advantage (which it is not if it is available to everyone else), we should see the appropriate management of these tools as something that can confer an advantage. The advantage then is really the avoidance of the traps that others fall into.
  

  The promise of technology is to automate drudgery - to do away with repetitive tasks. Technology should allow us all to focus on value creating activities and reduce administration and support costs. So how do we benefit from the upside and minimize the downside of technology? I think the only way is discipline. Discipline to manage our technology and network to minimize problems and downtime. Discipline to thoroughly learn the skills required to leverage technology. And finally, the self-discipline to avoid the temptations and distractions that are inevitably present.