Technology creeps into all parts of our lives and it be can be all consuming and paralyzing.

But the purpose of technology is to make our lives easier. Where did we go wrong and what can we do about it to turn it around and have technology work for us.

In September 2019, a valued member of the Digital Village, Charlotte Rose-Mellis lead a workshop highlighting 3 ways to improve your work:life balance and have technology work for you by actually using it less!

With a Bachelor of Science (Psychology & Business Management) and a Graduate Diploma in Psychological Science, Charlotte’s work is influenced by a passion for human-centred design and a decade of experience integrating tech, business and impact as a self-taught web engineer, to create lucrative solutions that regenerate natural environments and grow revenue simultaneously.

Recent career highlights include Speaking at TEDx Tahiti, Finalist for the Young Sustainability Champion NSW and Winner of FYA Pitch the Future (Tech for Good). 

Enjoy!

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The weekend before this event I spent the weekend camping and bush walking through a National Park. I observed the similarities between navigating through the Jungle of technology and that of find ing our way through the jungle of technology in business.

 

My friends and I spent quite some time at the campsite beforehand, planning our route up the mountain to where the rivers form a Y and the mountains get high and beautiful.

Looking on the map, seemed simple enough. Looking from the top of the ranges, the treelines and river direction seemed easy to understand. A-B.

Technology in business is similar to this. Often it can seem simple enough, but it is easy to get lost. 

We started our decent into the rainforest to find the bottom of the gorge with a plan to simply follow the river upstream. 

However, the further we went and the deeper we got into the vines, our view of our goal and destination along with how we planned to get there had to change. Navigating our way through the jungle required responding to unforeseen circumstances and constant course correction. There were some paths that led to dead ends. There were some sections that were just not crossable, and we had to find another way round. 

It is the same when running a business. The deeper you get into projects (in-particular technology based projects), your view of your goal and destination along with how you planned to get there changes. Business and technology is an uncertain environment that is constantly changing. Things happen, and you need to be flexible enough to adapt. There are some experiments that lead to dead ends. There are some milestones that don’t get met or features that were just not doable and you have to find another way round.

The perspective changes because there is too much happening right in front of you. Getting distracted by smaller problems and obstacles. There is a million ways up the river but how do you know which one is the best? There is so much else to attend to, that it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. 

A business owner has a jungle in every part of the business. There is a lot to take into consideration and it is a challenge to keep up with it all. For example, it would be wise for a business to adopt a CRM and related marketing technologies to more effectively communicate with their customers and manage other important business metrics. But, how is the average business owner expected to know which technology is best suited to their business? Here are their options:

And that is only marketing technology!

There is technology for every part of the business and it is highly important that the right technologies are chosen with a clear vision for the future. 

The beautiful thing about technology is that almost anything is possible. It can change your business and your personal life as well. But in many cases I’ve seen, it has the opposite effect. Driving people to the brink of breakdown out of frustration, stress and inefficiency. 

The core of any business is its people. The people who serve the customers and the customers who you’re serving. Technology should be looked upon as an enabler of this. To facilitate value being provided or related transactions, communications etc. Anything more is likely getting in the road. 

Until next time

Jason

P.S. we made it to our destination even though it took us longer than expected and we took a completely different track. We got to where we wanted to go and the journey was great. 

What would have made it easier, is to have a local who knew the terrain and the obstacles to help guide us through the jungle.

Where are you going with your business? What role does technology play? How do you plan to choose your adventure and who would you like to embark on it with?