Today I had the opportunity to make my case for why our church should make the move to Google Apps from their current setup.
After, I had the chance to speak to a couple of people in a more intimate environment and it was at that time a person expressed to me their frustration with our technology and they were concerned about moving to new technology if it wasn’t going to help.
At one point this person said:
“We’re handicapping our staff with the technology we have, not empowering them.”
Ouch.
When asked why, they said it was because of the many tools they’ve been given to use.
As a result, people spent more time attempting to work around pitfalls to get things to work. The effect is lost productivity and frustration as well as an automatic negative attitude towards something new, particularly if the promise is it’s going to make their lives easier.
So if we’re expecting people to utilize that new technology we rolled out, we have to make sure it is working correctly and helping them use it well so people are empowered.
Lesson: Providing technology is only half the battle. Educating them is just as important!
[Image from DearDarbie and Zach]
This happens in all areas of life. Personally, I have seen lots of technology purchased for classrooms without the proper, ongoing training for teachers. It ends up being a HUGE waste of resources.
More people in IT and development need to understand this. Not everyone thinks like geeks (and that’s a good thing!).
Good point. I forget that too. What we think is “easy” is not necessarily the case for others.
Just remember…
“It’s not what the software does, it’s what the user does.”
First and foremost we must make sure the user is not overwhelmed.
Dang. Great point.
As a 24-year old working in a church filled with 40-50 year olds, I’ve become the tech guy by default.
And while I’m so excited at the possibility for how tech can help empower lay people to join our mission, I realize that sometime that can be pretty tough on others and they can end up feeling shackled to a computer screen.
I feel your pain. I’m the 25 year old “Director of Technology” in a church with mostly the same demo as your work with. It’s a battle for sure but it’s also quite a fun ride!
I’m a youth pastor who has a college degree with “computer” in the title which means that I am also the computer guy at my church. i will say that switching to google apps was great. A good portion of the staff are self professed computer illiterates. It was my task to teach the secretary how to use google apps. She picked it up in a day. She’s running our calendar, sending out reminders, everything. Google apps is easy enough to release people from technology in order to do ministry.
That’s great to hear!