Unlocking the Key to Technology

Everyone just assumes that technology is a good thing.  They assume that technology is used to increase productivity. 

I hope you all know that’s not really the truth, is it?  Technology can empower people to waste more time than ever possible before in human history.  And there is one simple undeniable fact.  In order to work technology, you typically have to physically interface with that technology.  This means you have to sit at your computer.  This means that you have to have your cell phone on and your keyboard enabled at all times.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.  You’re wondering “what’s wrong with that?”

Just because that the thinking class is willing to sit at their computer and interface with it for hours on end doesn’t make it right. 

Now bear with me for a second.  I always say that digital dictation is the most important technology breakthrough just short of the personal computer and the internet itself. 

What if the thinking class didn’t have to sit at their computers in order to make things happen in real time.  Folks, it’s really this simple.  Digital dictation allows you to drive tasks.  It requires real people to receive and execute those tasks on the other end.  The missing piece of technology is the human being. 

Back in the year 2001, most people weren’t willing to sit at their computers for hours on end.  And professionals certainly didn’t do that at work.  As a result of the fact that technology allows everybody to ubiquitously handle their own correspondence through email, their own research through Google and the multiple for pay databases, their own desktop faxing and ultimately their own keystrokes.

I don’t know too many people who can type as fast as they can talk.  Digital dictation is faster and it’s unequivocally 24 x 7.  You don’t have to have anything except a cell phone or a digital dictation device to talk.  But you need staff to execute task if you want to move the ball in ways that were not possible five years ago.  Top-level attorneys managing cases should be using the power of their brains to figure things out.  The moment you come to appreciate that staffing up is the key capability which technology enables…well, I am telling you.  Find the revenue to hire top-notched staff and start using technology to make things happen across all of your professional relationships and business interests.  And remember, technology will help you at work but probably not at home.  Don’t forget to unplug and take time for your family.  That’s a lesson I continue to learn.