MODERN TECHNOLOGY
Is technology
reinventing teamwork?
By Graham Winter
D
isruption is the buzz word of
business. And why wouldn’t
it be when tech-centric
companies like Amazon, Uber,
Netflix and Twitter are transforming
the way we shop, travel, play
and communicate. Perhaps your
business is trying to disrupt itself?
If not, then you can be sure that
someone else is, and chances are
they’re doing it with quite different
teamwork practices than you treat as
the norm.
Is it technology that’s making the
difference inside these disruptive
companies? Yes, to the extent that
product technology supports their
exponential growth. However incompany everyone has the same
access to much the same technology
at the same time, everywhere. It’s
cheap, easy to use and mobile.
And let’s remember that instant
messaging, email, smartphones,
video, collaboration software and the
like are tools and tools only. Where’s
the difference?
There’s a clue in the common
purpose of many of these new
technologies: to facilitate the sharing
of information. Indeed, this is exactly
why The Net was invented in the
first place. Social media platforms
like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter
are popular because people like to
share. We have social brains and
our evolution has programmed us
to connect (because it saved our
early ancestors from the disruption
48 ModernBusiness
January 2016
of sabre toothed tigers). Even Daniel
Goleman, the acclaimed thought
leader in Emotional Intelligence, now
speaks of Social Intelligence.
We are genetically wired to engage
and share with others and in doing
so, to adapt and respond and
learn, which is precisely what the
disruptive teams in places like Uber
and Dropbox are doing so brilliantly,
and they’re doing it with the help
(and at times hindrance) of new
technologies.
Here are five things you might do to
lead your team to be the disrupters,
or at least the nimble adaptor