technology Archives - Dennis E. Gilbert

30
Aug 21
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Technology Tools, Still Room For Improvement?

Tags : costs innovation leadership technology tools

Do you like technology tools? For example, do you like your navigation system in your car, or the app on your phone? What about streaming content? Netflix for example, YouTube, or Peacock?

Are tech things working for you? Have they made life better?

There are many more things you can add to the list, but this is a good start.

Yesterday, I had to drive about 80 miles away from my home. I’ve been to this location twice before in the past 10 years. The last time was 4 years ago. The location is somewhat remote, several winding and twisting back country roads in the last 10 miles or so. I know the way, until the last few miles.

Why can’t I put my destination in my navigation system, and when I need help, just ask. For example, “What exit off route 283?”

Granted my car is a few years old, and newer navigation systems (or apps) may have better features, but are they at that level yet?

What about Netflix?

I like Netflix on some level, but why does it show me little kids movies in the top 10? I don’t see myself ever watching them. Ever.

Why can’t the filter features be better or easier? In my search, I haven’t seen a filter to remove movies that are dubbed over from another language. It may be there, but I have haven’t noticed it.

Why can’t Netflix be smarter? It should know by now that every time I play a movie that is dubbed over, I only watch the first 5 minutes.

Flying (air travel) was much better in the 1990s than it is today. More flights, better service, fewer delays, less crowded planes. Why isn’t it better in 2021? There are a lot of reasons, but some of it comes down to cost.

Technology Tools

This is not intended to be a rant session. It is intended to illustrate that while we’ve come a long way, there is still room for improvement. Why haven’t there been more improvements?

It may be simple, improvements in technology cost. The price is something that not everyone is willing to pay.

Seen through a different lens it is about profit. The other side of cost for the consumer is profit for the business.

How much pain will the consumer accept before rejecting the offer?

I like my navigation system, I like Netflix, air travel is really taxing me lately and I definitely can’t say that I like it much right now.

There is a chance for improvement, yet it is a scale with a slippery slope.

In society, business, or personal habits, things often don’t change if the people do not see a compelling enough reason to do so.

Some things will stay the same.

For now.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

13
Nov 20
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Unrealized Change is Always Connected to Opportunity

Tags : change innovation pivot technology workplace

“What’s new?” is a common way to strike up a conversation. A common answer, “Not much.” Yet unrealized change is happening all around you.

Thirty years ago, on or around this same calendar date, I got up, went through a brief morning routine of hygiene and breakfast, drove to my office, grabbed some coffee, and started writing code.

At that time, there wasn’t the internet as we know it today. We didn’t have cellular phones, at least not enough to speak about. And if I wanted to read something it probably started with a newspaper, magazine, or book. A real-to-life book, not a digital version.

This morning I got up, walked and fed the dog, popped a K-Cup in the Keurig, grabbed a cookie, and reported to my home office.

My home office is much more like a studio than an office of thirty years ago. Three high-definition cameras surround my workspace, complete with professional-grade shotgun microphones, three lights on tripods, and two-monitors plus one flat-screen TV all surrounding my workspace as I type.

Today I’ll visit one of my university partners while wearing a protective mask, sign some certificates of completion for the participants of an online leadership development training program, and return to my office by Noon.

My afternoon will be spent developing more programs, catching up on some accounting work, and preparing for the delivery of five programs across four days next week.

What’s new?

Not much.

Unrealized Change

I can’t imagine life without change.

People feel strained by what they refer to as information overload.

Many people who are under thirty years of age, the place where this story started, don’t plan to read anything other than the gibberish coming across their 3-inch by 4-inch cellular phone screen.

Much of the workforce won’t go to what might be referred to as a traditional workplace. A human virus plus technology collided and changed things nearly overnight.

More and more people are paid to interpret and dissect information and make decisions or take action based on what they’ve discovered from a digital device than ever before.

Cable television and digital streaming services pour content into homes and workplaces at speeds barely imagined just a few short years ago.

What is known is online shopping is a booming business while traditional retail largely struggles in decline. Thirty years ago, it was called a mail-order company, today its a staple of the economy.

Things are still changing.

Opportunity in Change

What is most useful may not be realizing the number of people you can touch in a single day. The distance that your message, your voice, or image can travel as you work with people in real-time across town, or across the country.

What may be most useful is to recognize the value of change and to determine how you will use it to improve the scope of your life and your work.

Arguably, the pace may have been slower thirty years ago.

So was the opportunity to make a difference.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

01
Sep 20
-

New Workforce Normal Is For Now Only

Tags : innovation new normal now workforce status quo technology

Is there a new workforce normal? If yes, what does it look like?

If you haven’t seen any change, you’re still not accepting reality in 2020.

How is our current normal affecting the workplace and the workforce?

Welcome the New Fleet

There is an entirely new fleet of WFH (work from home) employees, and they aren’t going back to the traditional office any time soon. Never is a strong word, but it may be true for some operations.

Some aspects of the conventional workplace will continue. Manufacturing sectors, healthcare sectors, and retail, distribution, and many of the service sectors.

What will happen for the new office space? Will it be bigger with more people spread out, or simply smaller with large chunks of the workforce working from home?

There is no doubt that what is happening now depends largely on the nature of the work to be performed. Conditioned of course by the fear of the Coronavirus pandemic.

It’s change.

Navigating Change

Large scale and rapid change really isn’t anything new. It’s just that we often engage by choice instead of by force. There has been a lot of change in the past two centuries and many suggest that the pace of change is much faster. Perhaps that is true.

What’s next and what does the new normal look like?

The new normal looks like any other new normal. It’s change.

Change brings about uncertainty, uncertainty means fear.

Change happens and people transition.

There are some common themes to the stages of transition. It may start with shock, denial, and maybe some anger. In the middle of a change event people are often confused, stressed, and skeptical. As the transition moves on, acceptance begins and new expectations develop.

There is a new status quo.

New Workforce Normal

Change is constant and, in most cases, the new status quo only lasts for a short while.

Everyone operates in the now.

Before automobiles, the horse and buggy travel was the now. Before personal computers, typewriters were the now. We can cite lots of technological changes. Radio, television, cellular, satellite, and digital everything just to name a few.

What is the new workforce normal?

It is the now.

Look around you to see what’s happening.

Are some or nearly all employee teams working from home? You can expect that to continue for now.

Are members of the workforce social distancing and wearing masks some or most of the time? Expect it to continue for now?

Are services you provide or receive experiencing more and more technology driven accommodations? Expect it to continue.

The new workforce normal is what is happening right now.

Seize the moment.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

14
Apr 20
-

Technology Discomfort Creates Leaders And Followers

Tags : choices discomfort followers leadership technology

Have you ever been the victim of technology discomfort? That hesitation, fear, or unwanted risk to try something you’ve never done before?

Many people are making big leaps. It is more than giant steps, they are leaping.

The rapid deployment of video technologies used in a time of crisis has forced the hand of the slow to adopt.

Some will suggest that it has to do with age. Others may suggest that it has to do with beauty, perception, or the fear connected with the unknown that causes discomfort.

Digital isn’t new. It is just being wildly adopted by the feeling of need.

We need to communicate better. We need to have a meeting, broadcast some information, or participate in the next discussion. It may be for a decision, for something to learn, or because we miss our family and friends.

Needy.

There is nothing wrong with recognizing the need and driving change.

The question to ask though, is, why did you wait so long?

The early adopters and those who embrace. The risk takers, and the rain makers. Many of those have already been there. Everyone else has just been waiting. Waiting to follow.

There might be a lesson here.

Technology Discomfort

The lesson may be about exploring your discomfort and not leaping back when you see your shadow on the wall.

No more hiding away and waiting behind.

Stepping back keeps you in your comfort zone. There is no courage required. No reason to face the fear and discomfort for growth. Just unknowingly waiting to be driven by force.

Leaders lead. Leading requires risk. Following matters too. Yet, following out of force is different from following by choice.

Choosing is leading.

Having no choice feels like a push.

Nobody likes being shoved.

Making the choice is much more productive.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

16
Dec 19
-

Convenient Work, Is This What You Do?

Tags : convenience jobs technology work workplace

Modern conveniences have made many things, well, more convenient. Is your job becoming more about convenient experiences? Is convenient work what you do?

Many people wonder about the future of machine learning and A.I. (artificial intelligence). Will my work be eliminated or will people embrace newer forms of technology?

The easy answer to both is, “Yes!”

Embracing Technology is Convenient

Certainly, there will be resistors to technology change. However, when technology changes make things easier or more convenient it is likely that people will participate.

The Keurig coffee maker is one about convenience. It has been popular and embraced by many. Not everyone, but many.

Streaming video for home television entertainment? Embraced.

The smartphone. Embraced.

It doesn’t take long to recognize we’ve shifted to areas of convenience.

Modern travel is a great example. You could take a train from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to San Jose, California, but why would you?

You could write down directions to get a hotel two States away when driving in your car, or you might use a navigation device built into your car or through your smartphone.

Traveling by air you can print your boarding pass, or utilize a QR Code on your phone. Once on the ground at your destination you can hail a cab, schedule a Lyft, Uber, or perhaps a shuttle. Most will do this with a smartphone app. The more information you provide to the app, the better your experience will be.

Convenient Work

There are at least two sides to convenience. There is the side that makes it better for you when you participate and there is the side that means someone else may be getting squeezed out of the picture.

Receptionists were once popular. In fact, some could earn a decent living and meet a lot of people in the process. Today, many of these jobs have been eliminated or minimized by technology.

In many places the same is true for the toll both clerk, the gas station attendant, and the store checkout cashier.

Is the work that you are doing replaceable by technology? Will technology change our lives?

Yes!

Jobs will change because we’ll participate. We’ll participate because it is convenient.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

15
Nov 19
-

Robot Work is Important Work

Tags : employee engagement humans robot work technology

Do you feel like all you do is robot work? The work that is mindless but still needs to get accomplished?

Some people hire more assistants for this work. There is even an entire marketplace for virtual assistants who work remote. Some of them are available from other countries at a very low price.

Robot Work

It is important to remember that many businesses need human robots. They need the box packer, the floor sweeper, and the paper or digital file administrator. Businesses need humans to interface with the customer, answer telephone calls, provide direction, and process email and orders.

In manufacturing environments, they need machine watchers, product movers, and quality inspectors.

There is a threat however, the threat is the replacement of human robots with technology applications.

If you believe this is real or possible then you may want to consider how you’ll navigate and position yourself for the future.

And for the business, if you’re not moving forward with technology, you’ll likely find a challenge emerging with finding human robots.

On the scale the lines are merging and will eventually crisscross with the human robots declining and the technology advancements growing.

Old news, really.

Two Choices

There are two choices for the business. One choice is to continue to fight the trend and put an enormous amount of effort into search, hire, and retain. The other choice is be more strategic and make the necessary technology investments.

There are two choices for the human robot. There is a choice to move with the flow. Attempt to stay as relevant as possible and outlast the wave of technology. Another choice is to be a front runner to work with the requirements of the organization and be the leader for change.

A box packer is a human robot. An engineer is someone who helps the organization find a better way.

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

07
Nov 19
-

Capture Attention or Face a Bigger Challenge

Tags : attention career marketing success technology

For the majority of the people in the workforce today, the World has changed. Some suggest we are in an information overload society and we filter much more than we consume. What are you doing to capture attention?

When I was a kid, after school I would jump off the school bus and run as fast as I could to my house. It was an exciting time. I couldn’t wait to get started.

Get started on what? What captured my attention?

Whatever it was that a few friends or one of my siblings may have established for what you do after school. At times I played alone. It may have been with a ball, a matchbox toy, or throwing around a few sticks in the nearby woods.

Pace of Technology

Consider this, just a little over a decade ago there were no smartphones. Text messaging really started to take off around 2005-2007. YouTube was founded in 2005, and didn’t start to become largely known until a few years later.

What does this technology history lesson indicate?

If you are in the workforce today and you are more than 25 to 30 years old, things have changed dramatically. It has all happened, right in front of you.

If you lean towards the younger side of the workforce scale you may not really remember much difference. If you are in the middle to older side of the scale, change is very noticeable.

The challenge today for every career conscious workplace professional and every business endeavor is not so much about change as it is about attention.

How do you capture the attention of your marketplace?

Capture Attention

We’re all selling, whether it is our expertise and why we are the right choice for the job or promotion, or whether it is our products and services, or a third category is perhaps, both.

When I was a kid, on a lucky day I had just a couple of friends to play with.

Technology hasn’t made us more reclusive; it has opened up the World.

The challenge then, is being interesting and valuable enough to get the attention of your market.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

31
Jan 19
-

Workplace Change and Remembering the People

Tags : change costs people technology workplace

Has your workplace decided to shift direction, pivot, or use new technology? Have you changed machines, relocated, upsized, or downsized? Have you been bought by another entity? Never forget that workplace change involves people.

Since I officially entered the workspace at the age of seventeen, I’ve been around more than a few decades. I’ve seen a thing or two.

As we grow and expand our knowledge and businesses, especially with more technology, one constant remains, people.

How does workplace change impact people? How do the people affect the process or outcomes? Sadly, these two questions are often forgotten or taken for granted.

Change and People

Imagine you give Tiger Woods a brand-new set of golf clubs. These clubs are the most advanced clubs ever made. They feature the latest in technology, they are efficient, effective, and they are smart. They are also very expensive.

You hand them to Tiger and send him out on the course. A course he knows well and has played many times. Weather conditions are perfect. Will Tiger’s score improve?

Likely, not at first. He has never used these clubs before, they are different, he’ll need to learn more about them, get a feel, and adjust his style and approach.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand this practical example of the outcome of change.

Why then do so many businesses, so many engineers, CEO’s, and other really smart people expect something different with workplace change?

Workplace Change

If you sense that I’m about to jump on the soapbox for a minute, you’re correct. I have witnessed too many business fatalities.

Smart people who have calculated everything about their new equipment or technology. Floor space, power, cost of ownership, and the specifications for throughput or output. They’ve done it all.

Except for one thing. How their people will navigate this change.

Sound silly? It is. I’m begging you. Stop the madness.

Have a plan for how you’ll integrate your change with the people. How they’ll know what to do, when, how far, how high, and how long. Plan for the costs and especially for the time.

You probably wouldn’t tackle heart surgery without a surgeon.

Hire experts who can help you with your people.

-DEG

Need some help with people? Contact me.

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

31
Jul 18
-

Benchmarking Strategy And The Edge Of Technology

Tags : benchmark metrics strategy technology

Things around us seem to be moving quite fast. Rapid change somehow has become the norm, at least for many. What is your benchmarking strategy? Are you working off the latest or processing on dated belief?

Experience as a Tool

Experience is a wonderful tool. While it may seem odd to label experience a tool, it is something we use to constructively solve problems. Are you drawing upon your past experiences to create a path for the future?

If yes, good, because it certainly can be constructive. At the same time though, individual experience can sometimes be a roadblock.

We have several ways to create metrics or measurements for project evaluation or future strategy. We can measure against past performance (our data), we can measure against benchmark data (public information), or we can measure against management expectations.

What are you measuring against? None of these, one of these, or maybe a combination?

Compared to History

Things are changing rapidly. Our technology and information are a driver for rapid change. In the past 125 or 150 years we have seen an incredible pace of change.

The best way to go to the market to buy or sell products 150 years ago was likely a horse and wagon.

Today going to the market is accessible for buying and selling from a small device held in your hand. Technology which has developed and accelerated in just the past twenty years, some would suggest in the past ten.

An ever present dynamic to all of this is the access to technology. In some cases, it is a willingness to access it.

Benchmarking Strategy

New benchmarks will be set today. Tomorrow more new benchmarks. The day after, the same. We can find many of them on the internet.

Your work group, department, and leadership team will choose whether to access the latest benchmark data or not. What is the benchmarking strategy you are using?

When you strong arm strategy from your personal experiences, you tend to create a future based on the past.

Get out and see what is happening on the edge.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

05
Mar 18
-

What Is Your Customer Service Voice?

Tags : customer service price quality technology voice

Most of us have one, a voice that offers our opinions, expresses our values, and sets our desired expectations. Your voice may be more impactful than you realize. What is your customer service voice?

Internal and External

Keep in mind that customer service is both an internal and external part of your organizational culture. What is said, discussed, and believed is a big part of what sets expectations and creates outcomes.

Ship it anyway, the customer won’t notice.

I can’t find their telephone number on their website.

They completely rearranged the supermarket again, now I can’t find anything.

Your voice may be more powerful than you realize. What people say, even to themselves sets the expectations for future outcomes.

Power of Voice

When we believe the customer won’t notice, we’ll allow our work to have less quality. Believing that they won’t notice also signals that they don’t care. The belief becomes that they will continue to buy out of need, buy based only on price, or buy because they are sloppy or not frugal.

Certainly, the idea of fewer customer service oriented calls conceptually saves money. It removes the human cost. Similar to the auto attendant signaling us to “press or say one for sales, two for…” so that we are directed to the correct department.

The real problem may be that people are calling only after the website or help chat has left them with unanswered questions or additional frustration. Better yet is the system that demands your customer number, order number, or telephone, only to get a live person and have to repeat it all again.

When technology drives better service, when the investment is expensive enough to make it better, not cheaper, typically service will improve. Unfortunately, many efforts to remove the human factor are an immediate attempt to cut costs, not improve service.

The supermarket may measure profit and margins by what shoppers select and where they can find it. Single piece candy bars aren’t in the back corner of the store, that is where the milk, meat, and seafood is located.

The store may not care about the amount of energy required for your shopping experience, but they certainly want you see all the high margin items you can conveniently buy from them. In contrast, the e-commerce store allows sort, filter, and easy reorder, plus it arrives at your door.

Customer Service Voice

What we say, what we discuss, and most importantly what we tell ourselves and others will condition our expectations. This is our customer service voice.

When we believe that cheap is all that matters, that is probably exactly what we’ll get.

Perhaps our customer service voice should change. It may require more talk about what we buy being connected with what it is worth, not just connected with what it costs.

These are the businesses that are focused on doing what matters, not what is cheap.

They are out there. Their employees and customers both have the same voice.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

Tag Archives: technology

Aug 21

-

Technology Tools

Nov 20

-

Unrealized Change

Opportunity in Change

Sep 20

-

Welcome the New Fleet

Navigating Change

New Workforce Normal

Apr 20

-

Technology Discomfort

Dec 19

-

Embracing Technology is Convenient

Convenient Work

Nov 19

-

Robot Work

Two Choices

Nov 19

-

Pace of Technology

Capture Attention

Jan 19

-

Change and People

Workplace Change

Jul 18

-

Experience as a Tool

Compared to History

Benchmarking Strategy

Mar 18

-

Internal and External

Power of Voice

Customer Service Voice

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