Once Upon a Time
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My children have sworn to do me grievous bodily harm if I ever utter the phrase, "When I was your age." Still, it's fun to look back and note how things have changed.
Once upon a time, phones plugged into the wall. The phone company owned the phone and the wires. A three minute long distance call from NY city to Southern Connecticut, during reduced-rate evening hours would set you back about $15 in current dollars.
Once upon a time, executives (who were almost all men) had secretaries (who were almost all women). The executives dictated letters to the secretaries who took them down using shorthand and later transcribed the words onto paper. After corrections and adjustments, the letters were mailed.
Once upon a time, computers were giant beasts that lived in air-conditioned rooms guarded by a computer priesthood. Programming was done by punching holes in cards. It was a rule of nature that you would drop your cards at least once on every job.
Once upon a time it was the Personnel Department. No one ever thought of outsourcing the functions. In fact, no one thought of outsourcing.
Once upon a time, getting information was the hard part. It might take you two weeks and the help of a friendly librarian to gather the information for a presentation. If you were lucky there were people in the marketing department who would make visual aids for you.
Once upon a time you worked very hard to stay in touch. You called in for messages a lot. Teletype was a hot communications technology.
Once upon a time it was very different than now. Not better. Not worse. Different.
I've learned from observing the changes that have happened in my life. I love how each new big thing follows the basic pattern of every other big thing. Here's what I've learned.
Fads come and go with lightning speed.
Technology changes rapidly.
Habits change slowly.
Human nature doesn't change.
Boss's Bottom Line
No matter what you read, human beings are still pretty much the same as we've always been. And business is a people game.
Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.
Categories: Change,Forecasts,future,leadership,Predictions
Tags: Future Prediction Leadership
Great post, Wally, and your bottom line is so true. Hardware comes and goes, software lifespan is ephemeral, but wetware is timeless.
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Thanks, Miki. I'm sure there's a good quote on that somewhere. Thanks for the kind words.
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Nothing profound to add to a perfect post except to let you know am sharing this on my site's facebook page this minute! Can we make it required reading?!
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Thanks for the kind words, Chrysula. And thanks for sharing the post.
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I lived in that world you describe. What I miss about it is nothing...(except maybe a smoother complexion).
Another great post with a take away easy to remember and relate to.
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Thanks, Gwyn. There are some things I miss and they're people things. When I was six I contracted a disease that had me hospitalized a few counties from where we lived. My dad thought we had insurance, and we did, not health insurance then was by districts. I was hospitalized in a town in a different district. That meant that my pastor father who didn't make very much money, was on the hook for the whole, large hospital bill. He went to the banker in town. The banker loaned him the money. My dad finished paying off the loan when I was a junior in high school.
That wouldn't happen today. Today you don't know the banker and it's about credit scores. The last check my father wrote was to the bank, not a third party that the bank sold the loan to. It wasn't bundled with other loans and securitized, either.
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Good point. Perhaps another thing to learn then is that people will always need other people no matter how much technology is available to us.
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I'll add an Amen! to that
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Terrific post, Wally. It has really resonated this week as new age technology has failed me for 72 hours!! It's so easy to get caught up in the "how to's" that we forget that the human spirit is beyond it.
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Well put, Christine. Technology has made so many things better. I would not want to go back to the old technology at all. But technology is only a set of tools and it's the people that matter.
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I remember when I was doing clinical studies (testing potentially marketable drugs in human subjects), we would write protocols for the studies. They were like books - probably 50-75 pages. They would get, on average, seven complete revisions. Every time they were revised, they had to be retyped in an IBM Selectric by the secretary. The secretary never complained.
Then, we got desktop computers. This meant we could revise a protocol in no time. The secretaries complained like heck.
Now my clients hire "business managers" - college degreed people to coordinate schedules, run meetings, keep track of things. They are equally male and female. And interestingly, being a "business manager" (not that different from the "secretary" of so long ago, except they use complex technology to keep track of things) is a highly sought-after position and stepping stone into formal management.
The human element in business is changing as technology changes.
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Thanks for sharing that, Mary Jo. It's fascinating how the structures change names and details but remain essentially the same.
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What a wonderful example, thank you for sharing! I like how the specialists' response has shifted over time - or sooner, the attitude of the society. No more odd-jobs these days. Isn't it (somewhat) time of "respectful professionals"? To do our job, we don't need to talk back nor are we supposed to accept silently. Has technology helped?
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Thanks for coming by and sharing your comment, Anna
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Wally. This is a lesson we forget (and many have) at our peril. All of our technology is next to useless if it doesn't facilitate our connection as people. Tools are useful, but it's the people who use them that matter. Thanks for the reminder.
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Thanks for coming by, Rick. People should use technology, not the other way around.
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Great post!
Looking back do provide important knowledge. I use to reflect a lot about the last month and figure out what I should have done different, and try to do it the next month.
I remember when I visited my grandfather as a kid and he displayed a telefax machine, the latest technology! They could tranfer a drawing from A to B with a machine that made a lot of strange sounds. It was Amazing, it is almost 30 years ago, and I remember what I ate that day. Amazing!
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Thanks, Frode. It is amazing how a powerful experience anchors our memories, isn't it?
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Great post, Wally. I'm anticipating a power outage this Wednesday. The thought of a full day without my laptop and internet connection had my head spinning until I realized I might actually get some quality thinking time in! We're a lot more connected these days but somehow we can end up feeling less connected to what's important when we get caught up in the constant communication that has become the normal business day.
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Thanks for sharing that, Susan. The same thing happens to me when we go to visit my in-laws. First I worry about being un-connected via net, email, etc. But once I get there the people thing takes hold and when we're ready to come home, I realized I haven't missed the connectivity but that I'm energized to get back in touch.
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Far too often people think they need brand new ideas and then everything will be easy.
As you say people don't change much. Yes technology does. But leading organizations requires ideas that have been laid out well for decades. Some tweaks to those ideas can be made but by and large it is the same old stuff.
I think we want instant pudding. That doesn't exist for human systems.
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Absolutely, John. We've become a nation that worships the novel and expects a magical quick fix for anything. Interestingly, when Tom Hall and I researched the companies we cover in Ruthless Focus we discovered that companies who've been successful for decades usually have simple, understandable strategies. They get huge benefits from staying with those strategies, rather than chasing after the newest fad and the slickest new strategy. The people who work there put their energy into doing thing that improve performance, instead of into adapting to the latest directives from the C-suite.
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Wally,
With the exception of the teletype, I remember seeing what you described! It's remarkable how much has changed and what has remained the same over our lifetimes. Not that you and I were around back then but I seem to recall that Herodotus, the father of history, warned his fellow Athenians about the hubris of Darius the Great and Xerxes in his book "The Persian Wars." There certainly seems to be no shortage of hubris today.
On another topic, have you read the book "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy" by Eric Metaxas? It's one of the best books I've read in years. A truly amazing story about how Dietrich Bonhoeffer's character was shaped and how he served a cause greater than self. Very inspiring.
With best wishes,
Mike
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I don't think there's ever been a shortage of hubris, Michael. It seems an inevitable part of the human condition.
I
haven't seen that Bonhoeffer bio, but based on your recommendation, I'll certainly check it out. He's certainly one of the last century's most fascinating people and one who's life and writings both teach important lessons.
Thanks for stopping by.
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