Understanding Technology Adoption

Allow me to start our conversation with a story that underscores the point of software and technology adoption. It’s a simple tale, but it holds a lesson that resonates with our ever-changing world.

Through my childhood I recall my father, a general contractor, had a dedicated phone number for his single fax machine. That clunky machine was the hub of communication in his office. Suppliers and subcontractors would send faxes, someone in the office would snatch the paper and hand it to the right person. A simple, functional and innovative solution for the time – but a limited one.

Then along came email.

Imagine if email was treated the same way as that old fax machine. Envision an “email machine” plunked down in the middle of the office, a single computer handling all communication. Various employees take turns waiting on each other to use it. An unread email for a colleague? Would you print it out, mark it as unread and pass it along? Or interrupt their work and bring them to the computer to resolve the correspondence? How about setting up weekly (or daily) meetings where everyone gathers around to discuss the machine’s updates together? What about concerns over privacy and confidential information? Or inefficiency with employees’ time? Or death by meetings? Or the “absurd” expense of all that paper and ink?

The very idea seems preposterous now. No one in their right mind would replicate the outdated fax machine method with modern email. Yet this shift wasn’t just about technology – it was about our readiness to adapt and evolve.

The culture around communication had already primed us for this change. Email became an instant buy-in; a new tool that brought efficiency and privacy. Operations would tell finance, “We need computers and someone to oversee them,” and thus the IT department was born. What’s more, the cost was negligible and the value was immense. The return on investment was self-evident.

No one clung to the old ways of faxing. We didn’t try to shoehorn novel email technology into a faxing process. We evolved, aligning our process with email, recognizing its advantages and letting go of the past.

Though it might seem like a small or even silly example, it demonstrates an essential truth:

We’re all capable of change. Every process and workflow can (and eventually must) be adapted and scaled to the times.

Read more: Navigating Software and Technology