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January 20, 2006
What a junior colleague can teach you about technology
Youth may be wasted on the young, but there’s no doubt that some of the more junior members of your team have a better grasp on technology than communicators who are, shall we say, more seasoned.
For example, I was in a meeting the other day with three very experienced communicators and their (much) younger colleague who is responsible for managing the company’s news/information intranet page.
Everyone in the room was smart, but the junior member had, by far, the best grasp on both the potential and the pitfalls of technology. At one point, we were talking about how to encourage employee participation in the intranet—how to get employees to ask questions, make comments, enter a contest, contribute content. The young communicator was well-versed in all the latest gee-whiz possibilities: blogs, wikis, portals, instant messaging, etc. She knew the best ways to use these technologies—and the limitations (both technological and political) of each.
“Duh!” you might say. “Of course younger people know about this stuff! They’ve grown up on video games and computers, so they’re completely comfortable with technology. Why even mention this, much less write a web log entry about it?”
I bring it up because far too often, the junior communicator doesn’t get listened to—either by his or her more seasoned colleagues, or by senior management. Younger communicators are much more attuned to how their cohorts use new technologies, yet they don’t get the opportunity to put this knowledge to work, because they have to submit to the wishes (and sometimes the whims) of more senior people, many of whom wouldn’t know a wiki if they fell over it.
This is a missed opportunity, especially to anyone over 40, who still remembers when faxes were high tech. Don’t let the wonderful technological expertise of your younger colleagues go to waste.
Posted by Alison Davis at January 20, 2006 09:44 AM