High Tech meets High Touch

Over time, while helping senior managers in the high tech industry develop interpersonal leadership skills,  I realized that I have a lot in common with them.  I am a “geek!”  A “soft skills geek” I have had a life-long strong fascination with human behavior and possibilities.  Like the tech professionals I work with, I have turned that fascination with the “technology and applications” of human behavior into a long-time professional career and business.

Baby Boomers, of which I am one,  have had to move past resisting “all the fuss” about technology in order to thrive in the technology world.   Luckily, the technology industry is beginning to realize that “all the fuss” about how to collaborate and work with people all over the world is fundamental to success in the world we have created, ironically through technology.  High Tech needs High Touch.

I am intrigued by the  amazing relationship between human beings and communications technology.  In many ways, we have created information technology in our image.  And increasingly, communications technology is influencing and mirroring back information to help us better understand ourselves as human beings.  For example, parallel to the emergence of “cloud” storage of data, is the suggestion by neuro-scientists that perhaps our own individual and collective memories are stored in a cosmic “cloud” rather than our own brains.  The exploration of this may help us understand things like “simultaneous” discoveries and previously unexplainable access to information.

Over the next few weeks, I invite you to “blog-travel” with me and guest colleagues, as we explore both similarities and differences between human and computer software and hardware.  We are interested in your thoughts, your questions and your challenges. We will also focus on the practical implications for you at wok.