The Roots of Change
October 28, 2005
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In many businesses, technology is a two-headed beast. On the one side, it fosters innovation, productivity and income. On the other, it produces seismic change in business practices once thought stable, fosters discontent, and can even make a business obsolete. Succeeding in your high-tech career, and helping your company to succeed, requires deft handling of both sides of this equation You need to be constantly applying technology without ignoring those facets that could change the world beneath your feet.
Putting down roots
As I was walking through my neighborhood the other day, I saw a very common
sight. Along one street there are some very large, and very beautiful
Ficus trees in the area between the sidewalk and the street. Despite their
beauty, though, Ficus trees have very prominent and aggressive root systems.
In several spots, these roots had disrupted the sidewalk cement, in some
cases, lifting it up several inches and cracking it.
As I continued my walk, I began to see parallels between these roots and
the way we deal with technology in our companies. We want the benefits
of the trees and the beauty they bring to the street, just as we desire
the benefits that technology brings to our businesses. Unfortunately,
we seem determined to build our sidewalks up against the base of our trees,
knowing full well what is going to happen. The roots will not stop and
cannot be resisted, They will first raise the concrete and eventually
destroy it, if allowed.
We often find the same problems in using technology in our businesses.
We take wonderful new technology and saddle it with out-dated business
practices, cumbersome bureaucracy and limited thinking. Just like the
cement sidewalk, cracks soon appear. Left long enough, these cracks will
lead to destruction...destruction of productivity and profits. Technology
causes change as surely as the roots of a tree, slowly, day by day, week
by week, it can crack apart your company, if you allow it.
Fighting the roots
Of course, many homeowners will try to fight the roots and the problems
they cause. First, they might try to gloss over the problems with little
ramps that attempt to prevent neighbors from tripping over the seams.
Then they might become more aggressive and try to tear out the roots.
Finally, they may remove the tree altogether. In extreme cases you will
even see cities banning certain types of trees to prevent the problem
from ever occurring. You will find the same types of battles being fought
in corporate IT departments.
In some cases, companies try to ignore the fact that there is a problem
altogether. You might hear them say, “That technology doesn’t
apply to us” or “Our industry is different.” Meanwhile,
their business is being destroyed beneath their feet. Technology can either
destroy their business from within or without.
Perhaps a new piece of technology exposes inter-departmental squabbles
or a new report shows up errors in accounting practices. Almost immediately,
little fixes, like the ramps in the sidewalk, are thrown up to hide the
problem, without truly solving it. In some extreme cases, a company might
not recognize that a new technology is about to make them obsolete. They’ll
attempt to tweak their services and product lines, without really addressing
the true issues. It is only when they see the total destruction that they
realize the true source of their problems.
Finally, some companies simply ban certain technologies outright. They
are unable to see the benefits the technology might provide. They only
see the problems. If a technology threatens to be disruptive, in any way,
they ignore or dismiss its usefulness. This is akin to tearing out the
tree, no matter how beautiful it might be.
A better solution, in all these cases, is to carefully evaluate the technologies
you use, and those that might be effecting your business from the outside
and then adapt to them. Build your “sidewalk” farther away...
use different, more flexible materials...plant different trees and shrubs.
Don’t ignore the problem; hoping it will go away, because I can
guarantee that it will still be there, under your feet. waiting to crack
and destroy everything you have so carefully constructed.
