2

TEN STEPS TO SUCCESS WITH TECHNOLOGY

The focus of this book is deliberately not on technology. What we are talking about is much more important than that. But there is a technological basis for what is happening and one of the biggest challenges is to approach this new and unfamiliar set of tools in the most productive way. This chapter lays out a few principles and ten practical steps you can take to make your use of technology more productive and less painful.

For several reasons I have deliberately avoided talking too much about technology in this book. Firstly, it is too easy to dismiss what is happening as technological – to label it “digital” – and to miss the real point – the changes we are seeing are cultural. Cultural changes that were happening anyway and the web has simply helped to speed them up. This isn’t a technological revolution followed by social change, but a social revolution made easier by technological change. People’s attitudes to work and their employers were changing anyway. The stability of the permanent contract and the job for life was broken by the organizations themselves. People becoming less loyal was due to a growing lack of trust and increased need for independence – not people having access to Facebook! We can no longer rely on security of employment and more of us are aware of the possibility of taking responsibility for our own destinies. These changes were not brought about by technology – they came about as a result of the cracks appearing ...

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