Originally presented at the 2015 CIPD Learning and Development Show at London Olympia and organised by the CIPD Leaders in Learning Network, in this fast-paced presentation Brightwave's Senior Learning Designer Rich Calcutt shared his insight and expertise on new technology and the future of workplace engagement.
Themes and learning points include:
● Learning immersion: wearables, digital self-quantification and mediation
● Just in time content - Mobile, plus Performance Support/job aids at the point of need
● Physical and virtual networked workspaces where individuals choose to stay…
2. Who am I?
Rich Calcutt
Senior Learning Designer
@elearner_rich
Fact:
I was once told to ‘bugger off’ by Ian Hislop at Warwick
train station after an argument over a baguette.
3. The technology we create
reveals our desires.
Engaging with tech is not
optional – in using it (or not)
we construct tech personas.
4. Services –
Internet; ecosystems; streaming; cloud
These are about convenience and lifestyle desires:
How we want to live, and what we want to do
New tech falls into two categories
5. Gadgets – phones, watches,
peripherals, smart rings…
Gadgets are about ego - how we want to be
perceived, and how we want to interact with
internet services.
6. What do these things
say about us? What
do they reveal?
Contradictions
7. We want to be:
• Connected, but alone
• Open, but private
• Entertained, but not
• distracted
8. It shows we can’t talk about using tech
homogenously – everybody wants
something different
9. Tech is ubiquitous, and it’s also
democratic – how you use it is up to
you.
We still have the choice
of how to engage with it.
10. Thanks to our newfound choice in tech
we express ourselves through this new
universal language.
11. We build our
persona with
technology
Are you an:
• Early adopter
• Techno pragmatist
• Techno-fashionista
• Techno-phobic?
12. But tech can also build our persona for us
Apple Game Centre / Google Play
Games build your gaming persona
across your whole gaming
experience.
14. It makes sense for
employers to use
technology to
engage
employees.
But history is
littered with
examples of
failure when tech
is forced on
people.
15. Great example from Xerox –where a
community of technicians had tech
‘forced’ on them and they fell apart.
Come to Stand 174 if you want to hear the full story.
Necessity and desire breeds innovation…
For evidence I present – the selfie stick. Egocentric technology for an egocentric generation. You’re either ‘one of those people that uses a selfie stick’ or ‘not one of those people that uses a selfie stick’
Apple vs Google:
Email, calendars, reminders, notifications, music, games, tv, films, social media etc etc
We’re far from aligned about what we want from technology and how we want to engage. What level of influence we want technology to have over our lives.
The things we want from technology are often contradictory. This is a problem for the creators and users of technologies.
How do we reconcile these differences. Not just differences between people, but internal dialogues about technology.
Thanks to the universality of technology This means is that we all have choices when it comes to technology
Consumer technology is becoming like a global language. Just like other global languages – music, art – we can use it to express ourselves.
I might not be able to speak to a person in Japanese, but if I show them I’m wearing a smartwatch they know a little something about me.
That means technology becomes something very personal – it’s a convention we can use to construct ourselves.
But technology can also construct our personas for us – help us keep tabs on ourselves and our performance.
Know to other people, known to software algorithms and business databases, known to ourselves.
When tech is so personal to us we need to be very careful about trying to implement it forcefully.
Researched by julian Orr in his book ‘Talking about machines’
Formed personas based on technology, ultimately technology ruined the community.
If we I understand why I’m being asked to use technology in my job it encourages acceptance rather than sabotage.
I’ve spent too many hours forming my online identity – most people don’t want to do it all again from scratch
There’s lots to think about when bringing technology into the workplace. You can either compliment what people already do and how they already use tech, or you can disrupt it with tech that’s counterintuitive and countercultural.