I’m not a Sunday morning talk show pundit or a basher of Obamacare, so I didn’t really expect to weigh in on the recent online insurance exchange Web site debacle
Then I came across a recent by Michael Wolff in USA Today titled “How CEOs are clueless about technology.”
Wolff takes aim at the CEO in Chief in making the main point of his article, but the point is one that applies broadly: most leaders still view technology as something separate from the real value that their organization offers.
As an enhancement. As an upgrade. But surely not as the real heart of the matter.
In short: as “software.”
But that’s a mistake. As Wolff, borrowing a page from Marshall McLuhan puts it – the “product is the process” – and “process” is inherently dependent upon – indeed, increasingly indistinguishable from – technology.
To put it another way, you can’t really separate Obamacare from the experience of accessing the care that the legislation promises. And that access, in the world we now live in, is entirely dependent upon technology.
As you might guess, I see parallels in the world of continuing education and professional development. It is still all too common for association leaders to view learning management platforms and other types of learning technology as merely “software.”
As an enhancement. As an upgrade. But surely not as the real heart of the matter.
But that’s a mistake. With the direction that education has taken – over the past decade, and at a dramatically accelerated rate in just the past year or two – technology is now inherent to the process.
You can’t separate technology, in most instances, from how members and customers experience the education you provide and the learning you (hopefully) facilitate.
Given the fundamental role of education and learning in the mission of most associations, this means you cannot separate technology from how the organization is experienced and valued.
In my experience, there are still far too few executives – particularly C-level executives – sitting at the table when learning technology decisions are made. As Wolff suggests, “it’s not they they are uninterested in technology, nor unmindful of its uses and importance” it’s just that they think “understanding its nuances is somebody else’s job, a supply chain process.”
I’m not saying that CEOs need to be running RFP processes or designing online courses, but getting more deeply involved and understanding how the “process” (technology) and the “product” (learning and education) are connected is no longer optional for organizations that want to thrive in the exploding market for lifelong education.
Leaders who don’t make this shift will find, as Wolff puts it, that “The more out of it you are, like the president, the more out of it your product is.”
Thoughts?
Jeff
P.S. – If you are interested in trends in learning and technology, be sure to join us for:
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I think we all like to think that process is separate from technology. That technology is just an enabler, the tool, but really technology is what the learner interacts with. If it doesn’t work or is poorly designed, doesn’t matter how good your process is, does it?
Thanks for the thoughtful post.