Technology is not what it is … Technology is what it does.
A few weeks ago, I had the honor of leading three sessions at the Scituate Middle School for their Career Awareness Day. While considering what could I say …
- How could I give them some knowledge?
- Inspire them to consider technology and business?
- How could I engage these young people?
- Most importantly, how could I avoid being boring!?
All uncomfortable questions. Then I thought, they think that technology is texting and all the social media sites. How could I blast through that? Then, although sometimes rarely, I had an amazing thought.
So I was in front of the room after being introduced. I put my cell phone on a desk. “So, this is what you all think technology is. Right?” They all nodded, so I knew they were awake.
Then, I reached into my tote bag and retrieved a puck and baseball. I held a Ray Bourque autographed puck and an All-Star baseball … then placed them on a desk. Stood back. Looked at them. Paused.
“Gee, it doesn’t look like the puck is making its way to the back of the net. Or the baseball over the fence. Hmmm, they are not doing much but just laying there.” I sensed I had their attention.
“Know why? The puck and baseball do not score without athlete’s workouts, practices, work effort and experience. They use their knowledge to put value to these objects and score points to win a game.”
When you give speeches and lectures as long as I have, you can sense quickly when you “got them” and when you do not. I gave two examples of technology used to create value.
- Texting was originally conceived to chat with people. Now businesses can use texting to process transactions. I showed a commercial from the American Cancer Society asking people to donate through texting.
- The recent Amazon video which premiered the use of drones to deliver small packages to customers within a 10-mile radius of a distribution center. We discussed that this military technology now converted to provide convenience to Amazon customers by delivering a product within 30-minutes.
I continued to chat with the students that it is their creativity, understanding of business, technology skills and hard work that can leverage technology to create value … increase sales, reduce costs, increase market share, create better products, and yes, create engagement with customers. Technology can ONLY be successful when someone “connects” it to such values and benefits.
Just like the baseball or hockey puck, it does not create success (or value) on its own. An athlete adds value to the object.
Technology is not what it is … Technology is what it does. A sincere thanks to the teachers and administrators at the Scituate Middle School for inviting me. Thank you for all that you do for young people. And to the Scituate Middle School students, keep learning and become a success! It’s all in your hands.