Index | Parent Index | Build Freedom: Archive

FINANCIAL CHANGE AND CULTURAL CHANGE

Financial Changes - Real or Imagined
Pay scales may change - up or down - as a result of new technology. Now most of us don't mind if it goes up, but what about down? Basic job requirements may change. Incentive and bonus systems may be impacted. Even job security may be threatened.
If the technology makes us more productive, does that mean that fewer of us will be needed? If so, who will go first?

Cultural Changes
What once was a high-status, specialized job may no longer be. Isn't the purpose of technology to offset the advantages faster, more capable, more knowledgeable people have? With the new technology, we may now be able to hire less-skilled people. Think
about it - what happened when word processors replaced the typewriter? Now it was okay to make mistakes. Speed became more valuable than accuracy, at least the first time around. There was no need to retype the whole page - typos were easy to correct.  The new way didn't require much skill.

And the attractiveness of certain groups may change. What was once a high-status, specialized group may no longer have high status. Now any group with the technology may be able to perform what once only the chosen few could do. Isn't that the purpose of
technology, after all - to allow all of us to do more things faster and better?

That's a lot of changes - brought about by the new technology.  How do employees so often hear about these changes? Consider how Bob Green handled announcing a major change to his employees. He called them all together and said:

I wanted to get you all together today to tell you that we are going to get a wonderful new technological tool to help us do our jobs faster and easier. Let me tell you what is going to happen - to you.

First, all of you are going back to school. Some of you may think you are pretty good at what you do. But it's a new day.  You are all equal. You are all starting over. Now, while you are all learning these new skills, I want you to know that the work we have to do still must get done. We are not going to miss any due dates, and I expect the quality to be just as good.  No concessions. You will just have to find the time to keep up with the work while you learn. Also, we are going to have some new procedures. We are working on them now and will have a detailed, lengthy reference manual for each of you as soon as we get it back from the printer.

Of course, there is going to be a period during which we are doing some of our work with the new technology and some the old way. Now, until we complete the changeover, you should follow the old procedures when you do it the old way, and the new procedures when you do it the new way.  And please keep the two straight. We don't want any foul-ups.

Another thing. We will be coming out with a new organization chart. With the new technology, we are going to be able to move some of you people around - sort of shake things up a little. You'll find out what your new job is and who you report to when you see the new chart. Also, we will be changing the way we look at performance. One of the things I'm pleased about is that in the past, there were so many of you that I honestly wasn't quite sure what you were doing every day. Now with this new gadget, I'm going to be able to punch you right up on my screen anytime I want to and see exactly what you've been up to. So you better watch out!

I do have an announcement about your pay. We want to take a look at your positions now that we are going to have this new technology. We just want to make sure we are not paying you more than you're going to be worth.

And one final thing. I understand that there has been a rumor going around that with this new technology we were going to be able in let 30 percent of you people go. Now I want to put the record straight on that one. It is not - I repeat - not 30 percent. Now I know all of you are as excited about this new technology as I am. And I know we are all anxious to get trained and get on with it.

Now suppose you worked for Bob. Would you resist the change?  Probably - we all would.  

Previous | Contents | Next

Index | Parent Index | Build Freedom: Archive

Disclaimer - Copyright - Contact

Online: buildfreedom.org - terrorcrat.com - mind-trek.com