Technology

Technology solves technological problems, but organisations face human problems…

The Assumption

Deep in the mists of pre-history, long before Homo sapiens, one of our hominid ancestors picked up a rock or a stick and used it for the first time. Ever since, our relationship to our ever-more sophisticated tools has fundamentally shaped human existence: wheels, clocks, books, telescopes, microscopes, machines, engines, computers, and now AI.

In the twenty-first century, the word “technology” has become synonymous with computers, apps, and software. The wild success of the software industry has incubated a fervent techno-optimism. Today, more than ever, there’s an implicit belief that technology can overcome any obstacle. Organisations spend millions implementing new systems to solve every conceivable problem.

A few core beliefs underpin this approach:

• Technology changes organisations.
• New systems create new ways of working.
• Better technology means greater productivity.

“Software is eating the world.”

Marc Andreesson

The Reality

Yet technology alone rarely solves human – or organisational – problems.

Computers can’t overcome culture, apps don’t address flawed processes, and above all, humans don’t always use technology the way we’d like them to.

Neither humans, nor organisations are as simple or as logical as computer code. Many of the greatest challenges for organisations arise where social, emotional, tribal, storytelling humans meet coldly logical, deterministic, optimised computers.

Amid immense hype and a vast stock market boom, AI is the great hope of 2020s technology. Despite the apparent power of Large Language Models, however, they aren’t the conscious intelligences of science fiction, but clever simulations. AI is a mirror reflecting human hopes and fears, biases and prejudices.

Organisations talk about digital transformation, but every successful digital transformation is a human transformation. Technology changes what’s possible, but human behaviour determines what actually happens.

“The real problem of humanity is the following: We have Palaeolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology.”

Edward O. Wilson

The Impact

For many of us, organisational life is a succession of low-key battles with the foibles of flawed systems implemented with the best of intentions. The real problems in organisations are almost never about the technology, but almost always about the unpredictable ways humans and machines interact:

• Most cyber attacks result from human error.
• Adopting new technology is ultimately about changing behaviour.
• AI is only effective when combined with Human Intelligence: taste, judgement, social relationships.

Technology reveals organisational failings as much as it cures them…

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