Friday, September 12, 2008

Adopting New Technologies

Can any of us remember a workplace without email. It has really become an institution in any organization to have it. It is almost the sole way of communicating. Do any of us remember the adoption process of email. For me it was already established when I entered the workforce.

At my company we are attempting to introduce some new WEB 2.0 technologies that are meant to increase productivity by allowing more real-time collaboration. This process has turned out to be like pulling teeth for some. Even though I work for a company that is high tech and on the cutting edge of technological innovation there are some that are very resistant to change. They don’t understand why or how these new technologies will help them because it is not only a new technology but also a new way of working. We have been enlisting some serious help from the change management organization to make the adoption as quick and easy as possible.

I wish that I had been around when email was just being introduced into the workplace so that I could better understand the process of it and also remind folks that the way they feel about these technologies now they probably felt about email then but they learned to use it and it may their work a whole lot easier.

1 comment:

charlemagne said...

Issues of technological advancement seem to have historical prevalence. Permanence and change: tradition and innovation: humanity and technology. The first iron forge, the first printing press, the first mechanical loom, the first water or wind mill. There are many "firsts" in history, and no doubt when farmers were first faced with horseless power, many were skeptical, or simply happy with the traditional ways.
And now in the modern age, techno-talk seems to be farily peppered with that dazed optimism which promises nothing but glamor and bliss in the future.
But in all fairness, email is one of those technologies which deliverd most of what was promised: It is hard to conceive of a successful person at this point who never uses email... not impossible, but hard. And to think, my company doesn't even have web-based email yet!!