Come to Your Senses
You Be the Judge
By Deborah Gardner, CMP
LET’S FACE IT, BUSINESS AS USUAL IS DEAD. In our high-speed world with the frantic growth of technology, it is important to be highly efficient. However, most of us feel that following others by gravitating toward the social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn is the answer. We spend hours telling each other what we are doing in 140 characters or less. Believe me, I know. I post messages and photos of my family, friends and even my dog to prove that I’m not just sitting around during these new economic times.
But since the business world has been turned upside down, we have been running in place, as if on hamster wheels going nowhere but round and round. Maybe relying on electronic communication is not the best way to conduct business after all.
Technology consistently demonstrates that electronic communication fails when trying to conduct business because it is not communication. Technology mostly sends one-way messages. The typed word can easily be misinterpreted and just isn’t a good way to dialogue with people. In our businesses, we can’t afford to let that happen.
Developing simple strategies and sticking to them brings success and value to business and provides the basis for face-to-face interactions. Behavioral scientists have proven that human behavior is what determines success. Our senses take in information and send it to the brain for processing more quickly than any other course of action. People react not because of what they read, but because they believe in someone they know and trust. Technology is merely a knowledge resource center. It takes personal interaction and face-to-face dialogue for people to expand ideas and behaviors and to make the right decisions.
At Hewlett-Packard (HP), execs communicate internally with face-to-face programming. Managers walk around and find out what is going on by talking directly to the employees. The open door policy is not just in the company handbook; there are no internal office doors at all. HP consistently encourages managers and staff to apply face-to-face interaction for profitable business results.
What does this mean to you? Realize what ultimately are of great magnitude—our values, morals, ethics and the good, old-fashioned handshake.
We use technology in ways never imagined possible just decades ago. But, it still can’t replace face-to-face time. Not yet anyway. Experience two-way, person-to-person communications with your five senses first and correspond electronically later.
Don’t Blame Technology
You Be the Judge
By James Spellos
BUSINESS TODAY IS RADICALLY DIFFERENT THAN IT WAS FIVE YEARS AGO. Technology has revolutionized the business marketplace. Whether it’s buying a product or managing a conference, communication technologies are still very new.
So, when people talk about technology, why is it that they tend to forget all of the benefits and only focus on how it is eradicating customer service? Not only is the argument shortsighted, it is quite frankly inherently incorrect.
Technology has enhanced the ability of organizations to provide real-time customer service support. Don’t believe that? Consider online chat support, community wikis and social networks that extend the conversation to colleagues and constituents over a 24/7/365 time frame? You’re not using any of those tools, you say? Well, don’t blame the technology for that.
Technology isn’t bad, and it isn’t good. Like any commodity or service, it is defined by how someone chooses to use it. Sure, diners don’t like it when an annoying restaurant patron talks loudly into a cell phone, but don’t those same people like it when they can connect with their friends using that same device?
What appears to be at the heart of this issue is how the adaptation to technology has created a chasm between the generations. This is nothing new. Nearly 30 years ago, I remember the protests in my office when a fax machine was introduced. Some people said, “How cool is that?” while others lamented, “Now I have to learn something else!”
Today, every buying decision for a meeting, event or conference can be accomplished through a new technology—from the online RFP to virtual site inspections, vendor selection, virtual room design and marketing and community building.
And that frightens people, especially those who have not come to terms with technology. Imagine if we had felt that way when the car was introduced or Edison developed electricity.
Rather than criticizing technology that enhances progress, we must focus on how we can include every generation. No Adult Left Behind. Education, training and access for everyone is our concern, not moving backward into pre-historic 1984 A.D. One+
DEBORAH GARDNER, CMP, is the principal and founder of DG INTERNATIONAL LLC and COMPETE BETTER NOW! LLC. She is a 26-year veteran in the hospitality sales industry, an 18-year MPI member, the immediate past president of the MPI Arizona Sunbelt Chapter and a member of National Speakers Association. Contact her at deborah@deborahgardner.com.
JAMES SPELLOS is the president of Meeting U., a company specializing in helping people become more productive and comfortable with technology. A certified Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS), he delivers nearly 200 seminars annually on how to become more productive and efficient using technology applications. He has been a faculty member at New York University since 1990.