Overcoming The Productvity Paradox

George Orwell once said that "Men are only as good as their technical development allows them to be",  and looking around at the pace of technological change in today's world one can imagine that it has never been easier to achieve extraordinary outcomes or to make an extraordinary contribution.

Yet, for many, we are faced with the paradox in that in today's workplace it is also harder than ever to achieve extraordinary outcomes or to make an extraordinary contribution.

One recently published book which makes the case for this is iDisorder; Understanding our obsession with technology and overcoming its hold on us, in which Dr Larry Rosen (who has studied  reaction to technology among more than 30,000 children teens and adults in 24 countries), asserts that

Personal networking technologies contribute to narcissism, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity, obsessive-compulsive behaviours and the ‘Google effect’ – an inability to remember facts that are assumed to be on Google

Recognising this issue, a key element in FranklinCovey's latest thinking on personal productivity is how we can come to rule our technology, rather than letting it rule us. At a tactical level, we help people to master their workflow, and one of the most popular items we offer is a technical guide which allows them to create settings in Outlook / Lotus Notes / Google Apps that align to their priorities and makes them feel more in control. We also help them design a system which allows then to manage their 'core 4' of contacts, appointments, tasks and notes across the media they use (paper, phone, tablet, computer)

Before these tactical elements, however, come the personal mindset shifts. We get them to question 'Who's in Charge?', raising awareness to the kind of dependency people feel on 'personal networking technologies' and the extent to which they serve us or vice versa. To maximise the potential for them serving us, we also help people connect to the contributions they can, and would like to, make in the multiple roles they play (work, home, community). Having come to understand whats really 'important' to them, and the extent to which they can be in control, the first part of the paradox becomes true again, in that technology can make it easier than ever before to achieve these extraordinary outcomes.