Thank you for wishing me a happy Father’s Day. Yes, I am proud of my children and glad that I have been able to do my part in providing. I feel I have been lucky to be working in this field for a long time. IT technology, global supply chain integrations, social network applications have been the magicians and transformation agents of the last few decades. However, at the moment I am grappling with the question what I must do now, how to contribute ? In our current crisis our technology may not give us the solutions.
Technology will help come up with medications to reduce the pain of Covid-19, and eventually Biotech will develop a vaccine. We will even develop the production capacity and supply chain for global distribution. But, will this bring more social equity, less racial injustice, stronger bonds within and across our communities, more empathy, less fear, more cooperation, less tribalism – so we can address our global problems, among them climate change most pressing? To play a meaningful and positive role we will have look at the characteristics of our own community and correct a misunderstanding of technology’s role.
A significant part of our IT community shares a strong tendency to prefer interaction with machines to interaction with other people. Isn’t this exactly the definition of a “Techie”, to be socially awkward, but be a genius with numbers and formulas? I suggest that we treat this tendency more as a “professional disease” of our community than just a charming quirk.
Our community shares an inherent and systemic bias towards technology as the go-to answer to all challenges and problems. Thus, we avoid confronting the emotional, social, and historical wounds and are unable to mobilize the human potential and aspirations needed. Maybe we need to pay much more attention to the quality of relationships - within our organizations, towards our customers, and within the communities that use our technologies. Do we help to strengthen mutual recognition, resilience, and social bonds?
“The most important relationship in therapy is the relationship between the client and the therapist,” my wife mentioned this morning. This got me thinking all day long. Is this the same in my profession, as IT professional? Is the relationship to our clients and customers THE critical piece? Only that way we can empower our clients and customers? Give them the tools, the data, the automation to be self-sufficient and reach their goals.
What do you think?