The technology world moves at breakneck speed.  Every single day new innovations are launched that leave anyone not working for a huge IT company dazed and confused.  Then the marketing side kicks in and you are convinced that if you don’t keep up with every single one of those innovations, you are going to be left behind, made redundant by next week, and on the street the week after that.

Haven’t we been hearing this for decades though?  It’s just ramped up so much now because we live in such a connected world that messages get to us much faster than they used to and via far more channels reinforcing that message.

Technology nowadays is incredible, the things we are able to do in science and technology are truly mind-blowing.  Our company wouldn’t exist, you wouldn’t know about us, or be reading this blog if it wasn’t for technology.  We acknowledge that with pure grace.

But let’s not forget something – there are millions and millions of people on the other side of all this technology and its devices – and enormous numbers of those people are still office workers that commute every day and sit behind a computer screen to get their job done.  They are not allowed to work from home; they are drowning in workload, politics, stress, health issues, financial worries, lack of work/life balance; and made to feel insecure about their jobs on a regular basis due to endless restructuring.  You simply cannot just throw every new technology that comes along at them and expect them to embrace it.  It is just not going to work.  Do you really believe that all this new technology is automatically making office workers think differently, which will lead to different behaviour and change?  I guarantee you it’s having the opposite effect.  All they are thinking about is how to not share one bit of their information so you can’t digitize them out of a job!

Long-standing, non-IT companies simply do not move at the same speed.  You can’t expect a 30-year old company who’s never had Office 365 to suddenly automate every single thing they have in one year.  People are just not ready for that kind of disruption and change when they have day jobs.  That whole fear factor thing of “yes but your competitors are doing this, so you better hurry up”.  Your competitors are having the same challenges, I promise you.  Everyone is in the same boat!

Slow down.  The job will get done anyway. Where’s the fire people? Let’s not forget that the businesses we support have been around for decades quite fine without our help, (or think about your own business if that’s who you are reading this).  Let’s not be arrogant enough to assume that they are going to close next week just because they don’t adopt the products we sell or support. I know multi millionaires who run their entire businesses via email, file-shares, Word, PowerPoint and Excel.  The word “cloud” doesn’t exist for them.

All I am saying, is that we need to put the brakes on.  We shouldn’t be allowing the tech giants to dictate how our businesses are run.  Your special business has been around for decades for a reason – remember what that reason is, then take just one thing at a time and improve it even a little.  The road to digital never ends, it’s not a project; because the second you’ve launched everything, all the technology has changed again.  Just keep going at a pace you can handle and you’ll be fine.  If the technology of the week does not make your life easier, simply don’t use it.  There is no rule anywhere that says you must.

Slow down, everything is going to be okay.