Technology, Truth, Integrity, and Honesty – Keys to success in the new order – Part 2

I am currently involved with a group that is developing a B2C portal with Web 2.0 functionality. The lead software engineer in this project is on the road constantly. When I call him, he is in Malaysia, France, London, or Sydney. Sometimes, he is at two of these destinations in one working week. When he gets to those destinations, I get a flurry of email responses and I am just one of the stakeholders. He is often talking to me at 2.00am in his time zone and vice-versa. I often wonder if and when he sleeps, let alone finds time to have “a life.” With this in mind, let’s consider distance compression.

Question: How do we deal with distance compression?

Answer: Think distance decompression!

Business travel is a funny thing – at first it is a “junket”, then it becomes necessary, and often it leads to be habitual. Distance decompression is working against the notion that we are all one flight away from being anywhere we want to be. The first tenet of distance decompression is thinking where we want to go is a long way away. Thus, distance decompression is re-assessing the need to travel, particularly for those of us who travel habitually. Secondly, distance decompression is about considering alternatives to business travel when it is not mandatory. The World Wide Web offers a vast array of rich-media communication tools to replace regular travel. Global companies have been quick to seize on this media and have developed purpose-built facilities to cater for these requirements. However, it is my experience that these facilities are never used to their full potential. In an age where increasing focus is placed on sustainability, we will need to start thinking more about how we can decompress distance and travel less.

Is my friend the software engineer doing the right thing? Are we slaves to our own machine? I think we are to some degree. However, I am not advocating “doing less.” Rather, we all should strive to reach our “potential” and therefore, we need to do more with less. A big step in attaining this goal is by simplifying our approach.

Question: How do we deal with complexity?

Answer: Think simplicity!

A key focus in business decision making is data gathering and analysis. We are constantly encouraged to keep digging deeper to find greater meaning. We are often deceived by an assumption that more data and more analysis will yield better outcomes. These notions become even less plausible in a world where there is virtually limitless information (e.g., Google yields 3,700,000,000 hits on a search for “information”)! Conventional wisdom has driven us to the point where we know more about less (I should know – I’ve got a PhD!) and complexity and paradox abound. Rather than solving the problem, we are paralysed by our analysis. There are two solutions to this problem. The first lies in the use of technology (business intelligence) that assists us to “mine” large amounts of data to discover new associations. The second, which is far more contentious, lies with our need to reconnect with our environment and trust our intuitions. My personal opinion is the battle will be lost and won on the second rather than the first. We know more than we will ever be able to say and this knowledge arises as wisdom and intuition, which is based on very little (if any) information. Therefore, simplicity is about:

• Understanding the level of analysis we need to undertake to solve the problem.
• Seeing things as they are and not over interpreting them.
• “Chunking” complex problems.
• Using advanced technologies that simplify our view.
• Trusting our wisdom and intuition when there is little or no information to guide our decisions.