MC71 The influence of technology on management practices

We hear a lot about tech. Tech disrupts businesses and creates unicorns. Tech changes workplaces and creates new ways to interact. But what about the impact of technology on our management practices?

Our hosts talk about the difficulties that come if we allow technology to dictate how we manage. And the unintended consequences if we don't align our technology tools with the problems we are experiencing.

00:30 mins Tim still writes everything into notebooks that he carries around and claims he is a "grumpy old man" with regard to technology - which is somewhat ironic given his previous company couldn't have existed without modern tech.

01:00 Pilar also prefers writing over typing but she uses a Remarkable tablet which makes it easier to share with others.

3:00 Over the last 15 years Tim has made the shift from early adopter to laggard.

5:30 It can be tempting to introduce technology "for technology's sake", using an application because it's popular or easy to implement. But if it's not solving a problem - what is the purpose? For example, several times Tim tried and failed to introduce Slack at his previous company. It only succeeded once the team had grown and the volume of internal emails became unsustainable. The moral is to not adopt something without first being clear on what problem you're trying to solve.

7:15 It's particularly important to remember as team leaders that a new piece of tech might solve a problem for us, but if it isn't also improving things for our team... adoption is going to be difficult.

8:20 Tim shares why some of the internal tools at Shield GEO were popular with staff even though the systems were ugly and clunky (hi Salesforce!).

9:00 Similarly technology, especially software, needs to be adapted to the needs of your team and the problem you're trying to solve.

10:20 Pilar gets us back on track by posing the question, "Did introducing technology change the way we managed people?"

11:15 Going back to Tim's memories of using Salesforce at Shield GEO, he talks about trying to drive behaviour in his team through using some default statistical reports. And finding unintended consequences, it drove the opposite behaviour to what was intended.

14:30 Slack changed how Tim managed his direct reports. It enabled much more structured and filtered communication.

16:15 Open communication tools like Slack can create their own set of problems. It can be distracting due to the volume of information flying past. It can lead us to get involved in discussions that don't need our input. And it can lead us to be more reactionary in communication.

18:25 How many likes are appropriate for a manager to sprinkle about? Pilar and Tim have differing views.

20:30 Overuse of the Slack "like" emoji pales into comparison with the horror of a reply-all email appreciation thread.

21:45 What are the impacts of your "like" strategy? If you are an intermittent liker, how will your likes be interpreted? And what will people think about the posts or comments you didn't engage with?

22:30 We've hit a nerve, stay tuned for a future episode on "managing by emoji".

What about you, dear listener? Has tech changed the way you manage? We'd love to hear from you! Get in touch through our Contact Form https://managementcafepodcast.com/contact/