How to Find the Sweet Spot

The third chapter of my book, Bring Your Human To Work, is called “The Sweet Spot: Finding That Special Something Between Tech and Connect." It's all about leveraging what’s best about technology, but also knowing when to put it in its place. When we use technology to enhance human connection and honor relationships, we are harnessing its most valuable features. When it becomes a barrier for connection, that’s when it’s time to rethink how we can better use technology meaningfully. Here’s a little sneak peek at one of the chapters about which I am most passionate:

These days, technology plays a supporting role at the very least in pretty much everything we do and especially in how we communicate. Our communication options for making ourselves heard are dizzying, but they are not all created equal. We need to think of how we communicate as being along a continuum.

It’s important to think about what you are trying to convey. Are you five minutes late to drinks with a colleague? Go ahead and send a text. If you want to forge a new working relationship or influence someone, make that investment in some serious face-to-face time.

So as a rule of thumb—match the medium to the message. The higher the stakes, the more we should invest.

Great businesses run on the power of connection. If we let technology serve as a stand-in for real, human relationships, we miss the point. Digital discipline is important for all of us to practice, personally and professionally.

Here are some companies that are finding the sweet spot:

JetBlue Trades Tasks for Small Talk

JetBlue makes every effort to make employee onboarding a reasonably pleasant experience. For people attending JetBlue’s new-hire orientation, the team makes every effort to automate all of the mundane tasks of orientation, such as filling out forms, either before attendees arrive or as the days unfold.

With the new automated process, the team “felt better about [the orientation] because they were actually making small talk and building relationships with these new hires.”

JetBlue gets it. You only get one chance to make that first impression with your new employees. You’d be well served to make it human.

Union Square Hospitality Group Honors Human Beings

Hospitality-guru Danny Meyer of USHG, the parent company of Gramercy Tavern, Shake Shack, the Modern, and Union Square Cafe, is all about using technology to maintain the personal touch he is famous for in his restaurants.

Technology, he believes, needs to fuel the customer experience and not detract from it. Meyer insists on finding the sweet spot. Guests of Union Square Cafe’s new dining room will have to look closely to notice something new on the wrists of certain employees: Apple Watches.

They are intended to improve communication on the floor.

Specifically, sommeliers and floor managers wear the device to communicate important information. A manager, for instance, can alert the hostess that a table is ready for the next guests or warn the coatroom that a table has paid its check so the coats should be readied. The sommelier communicates when a bottle of wine has been ordered, so it can be pulled from the cellar ASAP. Saving time improves the customer experience and, of course, the bottom line.

What could be sweeter?

Smart Mirror, Smart Mirror on the Wall: Rebecca Minkoff’s Sweet Spot Tsunami

Rebecca Minkoff truly lives the sweet spot. Her brand is equal parts “downtown romantic” and “store of the future.” With this particular sweet spot in mind, Minkoff is innovating like crazy.

How so? One of Minkoff’s most significant contributions to the fashion scene today is her smart dressing room. This room, through the integration of thoughtful technology, creates a more intimate and personal shopping experience. From the beginning, Minkoff has wanted her customers to feel that she herself is really listening to them. She wants them to know that she understands their pain points from the brick-and-mortar shopping environment.

This starts with a smart mirror. With a gentle touch on the mirror, you can first place a drink order, making you feel very fancy and pampered. Then you can choose to learn what else Minkoff thinks you might like. This happens through the wizardry of radio frequency identification tags embedded in each piece of clothing. The tags on the clothing you have already chosen are paired with others of Minkoff’s choosing. A new take on the personal shopper, this technology allows the Minkette to feel as though Minkoff is just another girlfriend, in the dressing room with her.

The Minkette girlfriend experience doesn’t stop there. Let’s say, for example, that you find the perfect sundress, but the day and the dressing room are dark and dreary and you can’t envision how your new dress will look with the sun beaming down on it during your upcoming trip to Cabo. Just change the lighting! In these smart dressing rooms, customers can adjust the lighting to match the time of day and the setting in which they plan to wear the item.

I’ll be honest. When I first heard about Minkoff’s new dressing rooms, and visited one myself, I was really impressed. But the real test is whether or not this tech edge will actually influence business.

Well, the results are in. Since launching the mirrors, after combining tech and connect in her boutiques, sales are up 200 percent. That’s a veritable sweet spot tsunami!

Whether you’re flying passengers though the skies, tending to customers in a restaurant, fashioning a branded clothing empire, or launching any other kind of business, it may take some time to find your sweet spot. But this sort of human effort will be worth it.

We all crave connection. Just remember, technology, when used correctly, can be a great tool for our work lives, but a major hindrance to our personal relationships, if used incorrectly. Use it wisely because finding that sweet spot is good for us as people, great for our businesses, and just might change the world.

How has your company found the sweet spot between tech and connect?