Do We Manage Our ‘Screens’ - Or Do Our Screens Manage Us? - Part 1

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

Trust y’all are enjoying the summer, as I am.

I've recently completed my latest book project, and I’ve cut back my travel, so I begin my days in the garden.

Of course, I bring my ‘screens’ with me, Pad & phone, which gives me pause.

Do we manage our ‘screens’ – or do they manage us?

Have we learned how to use our marvelous technology – or is it using us?

The answer to each question is clear, is it not? We’ve not learned how to use our tools yet, and they are dominating us.

Stand in any city part on a beautiful summer day. What do you see?

People enjoying the sunlight, shooting the breeze on a park bench, relaxing? NOT…

More likely, our poor fellow citizens are peering into their screens, oblivious to their fellows and the world around them.

Don’t want to be misunderstood. I’m as prone as the next person to this modern malaise.

(In our family, we’ve set some basic standards to blunt the effects, with some success.)

Why does it matter?

Our screens’ distracting influence can shorten our attention span, and weakens our ability to concentrate.

And yet, our screens also bring the world into our consciousness. We get a much better grasp of the ‘global chessboard’ and our part in it.

Technology, poorly understood and carelessly used, is a Faustian bargain. We gain a great deal, but risk losing something even more important.

Again, I don’t wish to be misunderstood. We can’t go back to an idyllic past before screens, (which wasn’t so idyllic anyhow.)

But we need to reflect on how our technology helps & hinders us, so we can reap the benefits, while avoiding the pitfalls.

Anyhow, I’m going back into the garden.

No screens this time – just my guitar…

Best,

Pascal




In case you missed our last few blogs... please feel free to have another look…

In Praise of Depth
The Fog of Big Company Disease
What is a Team?
Target, Actual, Please Explain

Digital Transformation - the Critical Questions

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

Digital is eating the world, as they say, and every industry is feeling it.

How do you steer a digital transformation? How do you decide on a purpose and strategy, and deploy a course of action?

We need to translate the eternal questions of strategy to suit our new terrain:

1. What’s our Purpose?
2. Where will we play?
3. How will we win?
1. What’s preventing us?
2. What are our critical gaps in Technology, Customer Experience, People, Culture?
3. What’s our overall approach?
4. What capabilities are needed?
5. What management systems are needed?

Job One, as ever, is defining our aspiration – not a trivial task in a world of tumultuous technological change!

Our best hope is to get close to our customer, and develop empathy thereby. What are her jobs, pain and gain points?

Proctor and Gamble and the great A.G. Lafley famously defined the critical ‘Moments of Truth’ as 1) Seeing the product on the shelf, and 2) Using the product at home.

These are correct, of course, and especially so for consumer goods. But even in this industry, as we digitize our offering, other meaningful pain and gain points arise, no?

How else to explain the explosive growth that some commodity products experience – even in the face of the incumbent’s overwhelming marketing might?

Such products can develop loyal social media followers who unite, communicate and promote the product for no outwardly apparent gain.

Clearly, there are ‘invisible’ and satisfying gains at work.

In my view, these invisible gains and satisfactions entail some form of ‘this product/service makes me better/smarter/cooler than I am’.

Seen in this light, our critical questions take on new meaning, no?

And this is a big reason why digital transformations are proving much more difficult – it’s not just about coding.

Here’s to a safe, healthy, big-hearted and prosperous 2019,

Pascal

Big Data – Caveat Emptor

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.

Let the buyer beware…

Don’t want to be misunderstood folks. Big Data is, in my view, one of the essential technologies.

Big Data, and its partner technology, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Augmented Reality, Drones, 3-D Printing, Internet of Things, and Blockchain are transforming our lives – mostly for the better.

But we need to know where each technology applies, and where it does not.

Aristotle defined two domains: the domain of things that cannot be otherwise, and that of things than can be otherwise.

The former comprises things like matter, physics and chemistry. Water is water and cannot be otherwise. It evaporates when heated and freezes when cooled.

You can predict how it will behave by applying the laws of science. Big Data works well here.

The latter domain, that of things than can be otherwise, comprises fickle things like economics, politics, fashion, public opinion, and behavior.

Big Data does not work so well here. (A deep bow here to the great Roger Martin, former dean of the University of Toronto’s business school.)

Can we expect Big Data to effectively answer questions of design, marketing, opinion and behavior? Can we outsource our thinking about strategy to Big Data?

These are all the purview of creativity, intuition, imagination – which are our forte.

Gary Kasparov, arguably the greatest chess player ever, emphasizes the importance of ‘fantasy’ in chess, arguably our greatest strategy game and business metaphor.

This is the same man who played the super-computer, Big Blue, to a draw, an encounter the New York Times likened to ‘Man vs Forklift’.

(Big Blue, let it emphasized, was programmed by the world’s top grandmasters, and rebooted before each game, so that Kasparov was, in effect, facing a new super-computer opponent.)

Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s – let’s use Big Data where it works best, and recognize its limitations.

For example, don’t expect Big Data analytics to give you the ‘super-nova” moment, the blinding strategic insight that illuminates the path forward.

In my view, the centaur concept provides the proper metaphor and way forward.

Like the half human-half horse of mythology, the intelligent human being working with, and guiding, well-designed AI, has the potential to blend the best of both worlds, machine and human.

I like the thought of my doctor working with AI and Big Data.

The next Kasparov or Kasparova may well have Big Data and AI riding shotgun.

Best regards,

Pascal

The Challenges of Technology

By Pascal Dennis

Last week in Charlotte NC, crossing South Tryon St. on a Green light, I, and two other pedestrians, were almost run over by a woman in a red Ram pick-up truck.

She was barrelling down Trade St. and made her left turn without slowing or bothering to look.

When she saw us she jerked the steering wheel to the right and we were spared. (My guess is she was playing with her cell phone.)

We hollered at her, “What the…” and “Watch where you’re going…”

As she sped away from almost-fatalities and almost-ruined lives, she gave us the finger. A brute, bozo and public menace all at once.

(And, I hasten to add, an anomaly -- Charlotte folks are invariably gracious and friendly.)

On reflection, the incident highlights one of technology’s biggest challenges:

It gives bozos capability they can’t handle – with potentially deadly consequences. (How much of today’s global chaos is caused by bozos with technology?)

I’m reminded of the great Joe Juran, who referred to our situation as ‘living behind the quality dykes’.

Although we receive wonderful benefits from technology, we also face substantial risk – from catastrophe to annoyance. Like the Dutch, we have taken advantage of technology to push back the sea.

We have thus gained land and all its benefits. But it’s a dangerous way to live. The sea isn’t content to stay back - it wants to push back in.

To hold back the sea, the Dutch rely on technology in the form of dykes. But once built, the dykes must be maintained forever.

We are in the same situation, Juran said, when we adopt technology. We rely on quality to protect us from these annoyances and these terrible dangers. Quality is our dyke.

By quality, Juran is referring to the management systems that ensure the safe use of technology.

We need to build and maintain the dykes. The bozos will always be there.

Best,

Pascal

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