Digital technology: equaliser or excuse?

I n my previous blog, I spoke about technology as a great enabler. I want to take this idea one step further and look at technology as a democratising force, an equaliser that can help or hinder users.

Within the business world, technology has significantly improved accessibility. During the early months of the pandemic, we saw how the most resilient companies were able to quickly adapt, using digital technology to keep staff and customers connected while ensuring everyone’s safety.

Technology also helps transform the rigid and often overly bureaucratic framework that support a business. Organisations are generally segmented into different departments, creating silos and hierarchical structures that impede collaboration and visibility. Technology flattens that hierarchy, ensuring all staff operate from the same source of truth and control.

If implemented with a clear strategic direction and the right people supporting it, technology can be a driving force for innovation, efficiency, and growth. It’s all about ensuring any technology investment aligns with business needs, overarching values, and users’ capabilities. There’s little point in introducing a time-saving solution if it will take months just to train your team on how to use it.

Overcoming technological roadblocks

Speaking with senior managers and executives, technology has often been used as an excuse for stagnation – complaining about the costs and complexities of upgrading their legacy systems. It seems ironic to use ever-evolving systems and solutions as excuses for rigidity and complacency. Sure, technology can be a costly investment, but it’s designed to open new paths to greater efficiency, transparency, and insights.

Business leaders also use technology as a divider, reintroducing their previously lost hierarchy through passwords, restricted access, and clearance levels that often silo departments further. Stuck with legacy systems that segregate rather than consolidate, it’s understandable some businesses are hesitant to invest in costly and potentially disruptive digital transformations without any guarantee of improved performance.

We can’t keep blaming technology for our failures and shortcomings. We must look inward for answers. Technology is there to support us on the journey, but it can’t do the travelling for us – there are no self-driving vehicles on the path to digitalisation.

Intelligent IT investments

I’m all for digital transformation, particularly as someone who constantly switches between screens and devices. Technology has blurred the lines between our personal and professional lives since we now have ready access to applications and information, ensuring we always remain connected. However, many businesses digitally transform without understanding the impact of implementation or what they already have within their IT infrastructure.

While it’s more expensive to overhaul a technology footprint than update individual elements, business leaders can get swept up in the excitement of a complete digital transformation. The promises of simplicity, automation, and seamless integration can lead to a very costly and disruptive process that could take months or years.

Sometimes, we get so caught up in the excitement of new solutions and lengthy implementations that we forget to assess our current IT footprint. When we the last time you looked at your software licensing agreements? Are you completely aware of every application and program you’re paying for? Are you using each of those solutions to their fullest value?

Business leaders need to be more strategic with their IT investments, involving their teams when assessing current technologies and considering new solutions. While it’s great to have the latest solutions supporting your business, your technology investments are only as good as the users operating them. Every solution you purchase should contribute to a better employee, customer, or managerial experience.

Technology’s influence on L&D

Much like digital transformation, learning doesn’t need to be rigid, or process driven. Shifting towards more outcome-based learning creates a more holistic understanding of learning’s value to both individuals and organisations. And technology can a go a long way to driving this change.

The formalised structures of education have dissipated with digital technology. Learning paths have been broken down to bite-sized content pieces that makes learning more manageable, accessible, and convenient.

However, technology also creates co-dependencies that can be difficult to break. I’m curious to see how many people have lost their sense of direction and geography since the widespread use of GPS. I’ve even seen instances where drivers take the less practical route simply because their GSP said so. Technology proves many of us are happier following orders than thinking for ourselves, willing to deal with roadblocks so long as they’re technological.

The ubiquity of digital technology has also highlighted our fundamentally human craving for customisation. From the development of social media and virtual spaces to the evolution of self-paced learning, digital technology empowers people through self-expression and personalised experiences.

This push for personalisation has made gamification a primary element of user-experience design. Inspired by the immersion and addiction that comes from playing video games, gamification integrates elements of gaming to make an experience more engaging and impactful. It can be something as simple as a progression map or incentivising users with rewards – gamification transforms the most mundane and tedious of tasks into a compelling adventure worth embarking upon.

Providing choice and convenience

Technology has also played a critical role in improving accessibility for employees and customers. Through a variety of devices and platforms, businesses can ensure their people and consumers are always connected, and their brand is always available.

This kind of accessibility and convenience is reflected in the digitalisation of L&D. With a diverse range of formats and teaching methods available, learners expect training providers to offer a variety of courses and content that suit different learning preferences.

Since digitalisation improves accessibility while reducing costs, it’s now much easier for individuals and organisations to trial different L&D solution providers. Rather than signing up for courses that require in-person attendance, businesses can quickly try and assess several different content producers and education providers without committing too much time or resources. This is important as digitalisation has created a more competitive and saturated L&D market.

To help businesses eliminate the legwork behind finding the right L&D provider, we offer users a unique aggregator service that speaks to learners’ interests. We partner with the best content producers and learning providers to offer an ever-growing library of different courses and content to suit different needs, career ambitions, and preferred learning types.

We help people access learning across a variety of formats, ensuring content fulfils individual needs or goals rather than tailoring content towards a specific role or career path. This widening of learning content’s appeal and application ensures skill development is done for the sake of improving, and adding new and practical skills rather than marking a job criterion off a list.

Technology has led to a democratisation of learning and skill development by eliminating traditional barriers to education and training, such as costs, time, and accessibility. Furthermore, learning paths are no longer linear, meaning learners can work through content at their desired pace. And from what I’ve seen and experienced, most innovation, learning, and growth stem from unstructured, freeform activity.

Overcoming difficulties through tech

Technology is supposed to protect us from the unknown, offering insights and solutions that help us face the future with confidence. Our increasing reliance on technology is replacing human innovation with technological advancement, making us more cushioned and impatient as a society. Online shopping has heightened our expectations for fast and reliable service, which has only been exacerbated by the growth of digital disruptors changing their respective industries.

No one is going to wait for a taxi when they can request an Uber instantly. Netflix began as a video-hire service and then evolved into a streaming platform, thereby pushing other video-hire services into obsolescence. Even phone calls and text messages are getting replaced by their digital counterparts – video calls and direct messaging platforms. Technology is designed to supersede its influences, but humans aren’t always as fast to grow and adapt.

However, people can still thrive when thrust into the unknown since discomfort often breeds innovation. We’re never going to dispel rigidity or deliver ingenuity unless we’re faced with insurmountable odds first. Pressure forms diamonds and builds resilience while comfort creates complacency.

For example, the difficulty of training engineers and operators in hazardous locations led to the development of virtual-reality training in the resources sector. As it became too costly and dangerous to provide on-location training, universities and mining companies invested in VR headsets and programs that made compliance training more manageable, accessible, and cost-effective. It’s the same reason airline pilots operate flight simulators before stepping foot in a cockpit.

Evolving with your needs

There is a convergence point where technology and people work harmoniously to improve how we do things. But it’s easy to get caught up in how quickly technology evolves and, consequently, how rapidly our expectations change. We get upset our flight doesn’t have Wi-Fi despite having a wonderful excuse to not be in touch with anyone for a couple of hours. We demand a service that seemed unimaginably luxurious just a few years ago.

Our mission is to leverage technology without getting consumed by it. Using tech in an intuitive way that weaves seamlessly into our daily workflows. Good technology solves problems, but great tech addresses challenges before we realise them.

To me, technology is a balancing act between making our lives easier and introducing new systems that improve performance. Technology is a tool, but it can easily get overused to complicate and hinder the way we operate.

It’s easy to lose sight of the simple fact that we run technology. All solutions and systems were designed by people, for people. Because technology evolves quickly and grows more intelligent with each passing update, it can be difficult remaining abreast of each iteration and improvement.

I once heard, ‘you’re only as old as your ability to process new information'. I see this idea as two-fold. Firstly, learning shouldn’t stop just because you’ve finished school or uni. Education is a lifelong process that doesn’t need a formal structure to be effective or impactful. Secondly, rigidity leads to stagnancy and potential atrophy. Certainly not in a literal sense, but in terms of innovation, improvement, and growth.