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Technology FetishistsI've seen the term recently, and can't remember where. But I like it and if the originator will stand up and take a bow, I'll buy him a Diet Coke. The phrase is "technology fetish" and it's rampant in business today. I have a friend who works in a Fortune 200 company. Management has given him, as well as his entire department, some pretty aggressive goals for the year. Unfortunately, management is spending most of its time working on how the staff will REPORT their progress, using the latest in graphing technology. Everything has to be just so, using the right format, colors, headings etc. At one point, my friend was actually encouraged to use bogus data for a report, just so they could have a nice document for the file. And when my friend actually needs some help in accomplishing his actual job, the one that has to do with the mission of the company, they simply ignore the request or kick it back with no action. But they HAVE hired an analyst who is just doing graphics...nothing else. The moral of this story is that, with our fetish for technology, and in our excitement in the use of graphics packages, computer-based presentations, and other toys; we're losing sight of the whole point. The objective is to communicate in furtherance of the goals of the organization. The idea is NOT to see how much technology and resources we can chew up while we get there. As a side issue, specific to this situation, the goal is to accomplish something, not just to measure how you're doing. I am convinced that if my friend's department fails miserably in their objectives, but they have nice graphs, they'll all get tidy bonuses. Makes me think of that phrase "If you build it they will come." I'll paraphrase it to: "If you install a graphics package, they will come - drooling and dragging their knuckles every step of the way."
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