Don't Be A Technology Scaredy-Cat
I made my mom buy a smart phone about a year ago. “Made” is obviously a strong word there because she is my mom after all, but yes I made her. Why did I think she needed a smart phone? She needed to learn that ‘new technology’, like a smart phone, isn’t scary. My mom had this sense that a smart phone was too difficult for her to use, but really I knew that she was just too scared to try.
There’s lots of people in the workplace that need to get over their fear of ‘new technology’. I’ve seen this fear drive people in to two groups (there may be more):
1) New technology is too difficult for me to understand so I won’t try. This group seems to think that not learning new tools won’t hurt anything. They cost themselves and the companies they work for. Taking advantage of new tools in the workplace makes you and your workplace better.
2) New technology is magic. This group doesn’t try to understand new things either, but they presume they do. These are the people who make their coworkers miserable. They say things like “Can’t you just…” or “Why don’t you…”. Then they get mad when you try to explain to them that a round peg does not go in a square hole.
When you are too scared to learn about ‘new technology’ then you’re going to be irrelevant in the market place. Once you’re irrelevant then it’s only a matter of time until you’re useless in the market place. There’s a reason we don’t plow with horses or use floppy disks.