Friday, January 30, 2009

What is your intention? Connect or disconnect?

The most important element to consider when deterimining whether you love your technology or not is your intention. Is your intention with that new server to connect your team in a new more powerful way? Are you looking to isolate behind your email with that Exchange server upgrade project? Our reason for working with technology needs to be clear as we and the technology are so powerful and without a clear intention, we could end up making matters worse for ourselves. Ask yourself, why is it that this program isn't working? What is my intention for using it? How am I using it? Am I doing and saying the same thing about it? How is my integrity around this technology? Our intention for something plays a huge role in how it manifests within our physical experience. It also is what people are feeling and responding too, whether they know it or not, in all of our interactions with them. My job is to help define what the intention is for your projects and problems around your technology and be a facilitator for your growth and forward movement.

Who am I and why do you care?

So, many people may wonder who this guy is going around town standing for people loving their technology. Why does he do it? What does it all mean? Or whats the point? Well, I wonder that too sometimes. I just know that my heart wants people to enjoy each other and all the ways that technology enables that. I see, all to often, technology either driving us apart, or making it easier for us to be alone. But that is not its purpose. Technology is supposed to make our lives easier yes, but not so that we can be alone. I dream of a world where all of our technology is setup in a way so that we can actually get to what we should be doing...connecting emotionally with one another. We have all gotten so caught up in what is available that does not require a human and the ways that we "need" to take care of ourselves that we forgot the point. Why do we work? To give us money so that we can enjoy our life with our family and friends. Why do we buy phones? So we can connect with those important to us quickly and easily. Why do we have music players? I know, this one seems hard, but think about it. We love music!!! And what is music? People connecting with other people through from their hearts, their souls, the deepest most intimate parts of themselves. We have MP3 players so that we can hear those songs from the heart, connect with the songwriters and feel connected. To feel what they are and from within us. The problem, though, is that technology should be connecting us more real time, not statically and offline. I know this starts to sound pie in the sky, but I truly believe that the piece missing in all too many technologies and initiatives, is the human element. Why are we installing that server?!?!?! What is the point? Not so we can have more hardware to babysit. So we can share, collaborate, connect, be with, and a part of, something bigger than ourselves. Technology is our nervous system. Now, my role in all of this, is to be a stand for that. I am a stand for people connecting emotionally by way of their technology. To stand for remembering why they have all of this in the first place. To remind them, in the midst of their IT projects, what the point of it all is. To help them connect with their staff and customers more deeply and more often. To guide them through in such a way that brings about a more emotionally present and fulfilling experience. A shift in their consciousness about their IT and its purpose.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

What does it mean to love your technology?

It seems that many people do not love their technology. And why should they? Its only lifeless hardware and software. Well, try reaching out to a friend without it and see how you feel about it then. Technology is everywhere within everything. There are less and less places that do not include some level of technology. And its not all wires and lights either. It has become a central system to the way that we communicate with one another. Whether its laughing together or doing business, sharing our special times or telling someone how mad they make us, it happens on technology. So, then why shouldn't we love it. Humans are already a very powerful race of connected beings of energy. We need other humans to connect to. Feeling anything but love for our new found nervous system of gadgets and gizmos simply creates another level of disconnect as we fumble through all of the meaningless data. People want to connect. Technology does that. In bold new ways every day. If we don't find ways to reconnect with our humanness within the context of our technological initiatives, then we simply drive larger and larger wedges between ourselves and others. Afterall, it is the human on the other side that we hope reads our email message and connects with something in us that brought about that capability in the first place. How many out there can say they love email because they love stairing at text all day long. I don't think so. We love being able to connect with another human being in our similar thought space and context quickly and easily. Sharing ideas and parts of our consciousness within minutes. Its what we do. So why is it that so much of what is being done with technology ends up either leaving us isolating alone with our iPods or worse, smothered in a pile of broken systems that we have now forgotten why we bought them in the first place. Technology is supposed to help, empower, ease our connections with others, not make it easier to disconnect or worse, isolate completely. So think about that, next time you are having problems with your email or computer system, think to yourself 'what is the point'? What do I have all of the technology for? To love your technology is confidently know why you have your technology (to connect and collaborate) and that it is doing just that. To be excited about the next thing, topic, connection and not worried about how your technology is going to stop you. To be empowered by your electric friends and not scared of them.