The technology (sometimes) doesn't matter

Before I hit the main point of this post, I want to be clear about something - I think whether in enterprises or for personal use, having the 'right' technology available is often a critical enabler of both indivdual and organizational performance. 

Anyone that has had to deal with older, even antiquated business systems that are slow, difficult to use, have to be accessed through a labyrinth of logins and passwords, and at the end of the (painful) process can't really produce the information you need to make decisions, can attest to the importance of modern tools and technologies. Or maybe it is that aging first or second generation iPhone you are still carrying around. You know, the one that has the tiny screen and doesn't have enough memory and processing punch to be able to run the VERY LATEST version of iOS. The iOS version that you know is better, even if you have no idea how. But you NEED IT.

So here is the point, until last week I was the guy carrying around a (by today's standards), a really, really old iPhone, an iPhone 4 to be precise. Older, kind of slow, I only had 3G network speed. Aside - does anyone actually know specifically how much better 4G is than 3G? Other than it being 1G better?  But I held on to the old phone well past its normal life expectancy for two reasons. One, despite it being old, and small, and slow, it just worked. I was able to get everything done on the phone that I needed to get done. So the small size and slower speeds didn't really matter all that much. And second, and probably more importantly, I had been running a mental debate with myself for months about whether or not to switch to one of the newer Android phones, like the Samsung S5 or the LG G3. Eventually I ended up with the LG phone, primarily since I do not run any other Apple products other than the old iPhone, and am a big user of Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Hangouts, it seemed like a smarter move to go to Android.

But even though I knew that making the switch to Android was the right decision for me, I still put it off for months. 

Why?

Because I fell into the trap that lots of us do these days, whether considering personal technology or even technology solutions for our business - I was placing too much value on the technology itself, and not thinking logically and critically about what I actually needed the technology to help me accomplish.

Keeping up with (and often failing) with Email, checking Twitter and Instagram, catching up on blogs and news with Feedly and Zite, and checking out sports scores on The Score - together these make up I would bet 90% of all the things I do on the smartphone.

And the truth is all smartphones, ANY smartphone including my old iPhone4 are perfectly capable of handing all of these use cases. Quite simply it doesn't matter which kind of phone I chose. ALL of them would do.

Yet I dithered on this 'big' decision for weeks and months, almost to the point where the old iPhone was just about crashing every day. 

The point, (one more time), is that sometimes, maybe more than we think, the technology choices we make don't really matter as much as we get fooled into believing that they do. Whether it is modern smartphones or modern HR or Talent Management systems, chances are pretty good they all will suit most every use case that you can reasonably toss at them.

The technology today is so good and so capable, that success with it is fast becoming not an issue of whether or not you have good enough technology, but rather if you can figure out how to use the capability in the most beneficial manner. So maybe the advice is spend less time lamenting which technology to choose, and more time making the most out of the technology you do choose.

Have a great week!

The App that will make me switch to Android

I am super busy with last minute prep for next week's HR Technology Conference, but I had to take 10 minutes to call out a piece I spotted on TechCrunch about a new app called 'Offtime'. The App, currently available only for Android devices, provides a more sophisticated way for smart phone users to manage the incessant stream of phone notifications into more thoughtful groupings to better manage their work time, down time, and the times in between.

The Offtime app is built to allow you to unplug without missing any important or urgent matters. It lets you create an approved list of contacts who are allowed to break through your downtime, e.g., family members, important customers, your boss; but otherwise shuts down your phone's apps, incoming calls, texts, and emails. The app can also be configured to auto-respond to incoming messages when you are taking some unplugged time, while compiling for you an activity log of the things that you missed while taking a break from staring at your phone.

I think this just might be the coolest idea ever.

Many of us have spent the last several years diligently building up enormous lists of friends, followers, and contacts in various social networks and messaging apps. But now lots of people are starting to feel the backlash from such massive networks and active presence on these platforms.

Namely, we are almost never not being pinged, nudged, mentioned, liked, or otherwise being notified about something.

And that can get kind of exhausting. But doing a simple 'full shutdown' doesn't usually work either. We still need to be reached by our family or by one or two close friends or work colleagues no matter what. The problem is that it has been kind of hard in various apps and networks to make a more selective list of who you want to be able to contact you at any given time. It usually is an all or nothing prospect.

The Offline App seems to have found a way to help folks manage this scenario by allowing a more discrete way to take control of that endless series of beeps and pop up notifications and actually allow you to get some real work done, (or take some downtime), without the full panic of not being contactable by anyone consuming your thoughts.

I still have an iPhone, so I can't try out Offline as yet (they say they are working on an iOS version), but if this reeally works as advertised, it might be the App that sends me over to Android once and for all.

If you have tried the Offline App, I would love to hear about your experiences.