Cool Features

Like the great features on a new gadget, we can neglect people’s talents, too

BY STEVE ROBBINS Ph.D.

I’m an early adopter when it comes to technology, always wanting to own the latest and greatest. I have to have the new thing the day it’s available for sale, even knowing that if I wait a few months the price will drop and they’ll have all the bugs fixed. So yes, I have the iPad–Apple’s innovation in the realm of tablet computers. In fact, I have two. I didn’t want my first oneto be lonely.

My iPad is cool. Way cool. Its beautiful 9.7 inch IPS back-lit display can show content in landscape or portrait orientation, with a 178 degree viewing angle. Yes, 178 degrees. Believe it! Its state-of-the-art touch screen responds to the movement of your fingers allowing you to do things like zoom in on content just by pinching your fingers together. Want to zoom back out? Just pull your fingers apart. It’s heavenly.

My iPad has a custom-designed A4 chip, offers up to 10 hours of continuous usage on one charge and is only a half-inch thick. It has built in 802.11n wireless capability and comes with Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. I could tell you what all this means, but then I’d have to, well, you know, kill you. Trust me, this thing is cool.

Besides holding my planner and calendar, it stores names, addresses and telephone numbers. I can connect to the Web with my iPad and download a gazillion apps (software applications for you technology neophytes) that allow me to waste my time or keep me occupied during boring meetings. I also can use it as a GPS unit and alarm clock. I can run slideshows, store and listen to MP3s and beam data to a printer. Did I mention this thing is cool? Way cool?

The first time I pulled my iPad out on a plane, the people around me watched with lust-filled eyes. I value and practice humility, but this was too much. Yes, bow to me you late adopters.

The first time I pulled my iPad out on a plane, the people around me watched with lust-filled eyes. I value and practice humility, but this was too much. Yes, bow to me you late adopters. To rub it in, I reached in my bag and pulled out a mini Bluetooth enabled keyboard made specifically for the iPad. It has no wires. I pressed a few buttons, connected the iPad to the keyboard via a Bluetooth signal, and before their very eyes I began to type. Nothing important, but that’s not the point. I was typing on a little keyboard and through the magic of invisible, wireless signals what I typed showed up on my iPad’s beautiful screen. Every once in a while, it’s good to feel like the only kid on the block with a brand spankin’ new bike!

Since that heavenly day I have not used that keyboard again, just like the vast majority of features Apple designers so brilliantly included in my iPad. I really haven’t connected to the Web with it much. I don’t use its GPS features to find my way. About 99.99% of the time I use my iPad to remind me of things I should be doing, and to get the phone numbers of people who can help me with the things I should be doing. I use an $800 gadget for something a $10 paper-based planner can do. Okay, I do use its alarm clock feature, something my previous Franklin planner didn’t have. Now I feel much better about spending
all that money.

Could I be more efficient if I took advantage of all the diverse features and apps made for the iPad? Yes. Do I want to take the time and go through the “hassle” of learning about all those features and apps? No. I think all those things are cool and I know many are of great use, but I just don’t seem to find the time to travel up the steep learning curve. I brag about my iPad’s cool features and the apps that are available for it, but I have yet to put the many to use—to help me get more work done, to be more efficient… to be better. Nope, I just use my iPad to remind me of meetings and phone numbers.

How I underuse the features of my iPad and the many apps made for it, makes me think about the many organizations that underuse the talent and skills within their own walls. Like me, they don’t want to do the work of truly getting to know all their people for who they really are and what they have to offer in terms of new ways of seeing or doing things. These types of organizations and workplaces like how they’ve always done things. And they like the kinds of people who’ve always done those things that they’ve always liked done because they do it like it’s always been done (getting confusing isn’t it).

An organization’s inability to intentionally seek and embrace the strengths and “features” found in all its people will prevent it from taking advantage of opportunities that require different ways of viewing the world and diverse approaches to tackling problems. Taking steps to create a diverse workforce is one thing. Doing away with old structures and traditional methods so a diverse workforce can excel is quite another. It takes time, some “hassle” and patience to transform traditional structures into cultures that can take advantage of existing and potential diversity—diversity of thought, perspectives, experiences, skills.

Organizations that toil through the work of discovering new “features” in its existing workforce and inviting new apps in (Read: people and ways of doing) will be kilometres ahead of other organizations in a rapid-paced, diverse 21st-century environment.

I will be taking my own advice and learning more about how to use the many features of my iPad and the gazillion apps made for it. It will take some time, but I am making a conscious effort to do so.

And did I mention I have Apple’s newest iPhone? It has a lot of cool features. I’m getting know them, too. What—or who—are you getting to know?

Posted September 1, 2010

Article originally published in Issue 12-4 of Your Workplace magazine.