On Purpose: Why great leaders start with the PLOT

CHAPTER 5TECHNOLOGY

Technology is revolutionising our world in a way that no-one predicted when those little binary digits popped out all those years ago. This is why it is the fourth and final cornerstone of the PLOT Framework.

Bits of ones and zeroes should connect and create meaning with life, society and our environment for its betterment. When technology is used off-purpose, or worse, used on-purpose for an application without ethics, it has the potential to become anything from a menace to a significant societal danger.

You only have to look to weapons of war to see how a technology's purpose can be bastardised. Corporate technology can easily go astray if not used for a purpose that has a strong moral compass.

Technology has woven and is weaving the planet together, removing the physical barriers that once fragmented the world. There is no better example than the pervasive worldwide spread of mobile phones. Once isolated, now connected; once connected, now interdependent: love it or leave it, this is our economy.

Unprecedented cultural globalisation is shaping our purposes, creating meaning and enhancing relationships — manifesting in what we buy and sell. Our ability to connect is creating a new story, a new model for the human spirit. Who would have thought ten years ago that you would buy shoes from a company who in turn would give a pair to someone, somewhere in the world, who needs them? And that this company would be successful? Who could have imagined that this ...