More on the Technology mindset

A few days ago, I wrote about "what's your technology mindset?" from two different perspectives: That of the person that was comfortable with technology and one that was not.

This has led me to start asking questions about how people feel about the technology that they use. What is their emotional mindset and is it having an impact on their business? I've come up with a few more reactions.

• "When I need to use technology that I'm not comfortable with, I get anxious and start to stress out. I am reminded of my incompetance."
• "The software that I bought doesn't format my quotes, invoices etc. the right way, so I did it in Excel, because I couldn't figure out how to do it myself and didn't have time to learn."
• "The way I set up my invoices causes my clients confusion and I get calls about it. I can't afford to get someone to fix it right now."

There are two issues at stake here:

1. A feeling of incompetence.
2. A business impact that is not being considered.

Why do some people feel incompetent when it comes to computers? Do you go to a doctor when you get sick? Do you feel that your lack of knowledge of medicine makes you incompetent? Is the general practitioner incompetent when she refers you to a specialist? What makes people think that computers are any different? Is it because you have a personal computer sitting on your desk and you use it every day? Your body is sitting in a chair at your desk every day too and you use it every day.

The Information Technology industry is very broad and there is a need for specialists the same as in medicine. These specialists may see themselves as capable of working in any specialty, but they are not. When they try to be, they create problems for businesses.

If you suffer from this disease, then you need to change your technology mindset. This is the only way to solve the problem. Believe that you know your business, that you know what you need in your business. Find a good technology specialist or generalist that is willing to tell you that he doesn't have the solution to all of your problems, but he knows someone who can solve each one. Get yourslef a business solution to your business problem, not a technology solution to your business problem.

You don't need to be able to solve every problem yourself. You just need to be able to find someone who can............. on your terms.

Tomorrow, I'll talk about the impact of the statements made above on their respective businesses.