Developing Technical Savvy for the Future Leader

In my company, I deal daily with both internal departments and external customers that are located in different geographic locations as well as different time zones (1). There are demands from customers that must be responded to in a timely fashion. In the case of a physical object that has to be examined such as a customer product, I have taken the slow route to make the communication connection with internal groups by mailing it or sending it via FedEx. These are the occasions where there is no other option, and the delay in being able to respond to the customer's issues is obvious. Where a physical object is not being sent, the ability to use technology to simplify processes and speed up the pace of getting results is a great move forward. Email is used in an almost universal way in today's society, both at work and away from work. People are much more likely to monitor emails for longer hours of the day than they would typically monitor phone calls at work. Response time is cut down dramatically, often from 1 day to minutes, moving from phone calls in a different time zone to email. Smart phones have added to this improvement, allowing emails to reach the recipient even when away from his / her computer, and allowing for an even quicker response (2). Higher speeds of internet access have increased the amount of data that can be accessed online. Having worked in the modem design industry for several years, the throughputs of the early years of the internet were limited to a couple of thousand bits per second, making online access too slow to be of any widespread use. Modem speeds increased, Ethernet became more ubiquitous, Ethernet speeds increased until today's environment, where a slow online connection is viewed as an irritating aberration, rather than just something to deal with. With the addition of wireless connections allowing PCs to connect to the internet, the ease of accessing online data is now almost taken for granted. Text messages are one of the latest trends in technology that allow very quick communication. Rules of correct business letter protocol have been relegated to rarer situations, or to more formal email. Text messages are quick, they get to the point, and the information included has to be clear. Responses are the same, a few detailed lines, and the communication is done. For communicating with a group of people, all of the methods listed are valid - email, phone calls in the form of conference calls, texting (3). Net Meeting and WebEx, as well as videoconferencing are methods where the conference calls have extended to not just voice communication, but also data sharing. These give the ability for all to see exactly what is being discussed, in a much shorter time than it would take to verbally describe details.

All of these types of communication have moved towards the goal of increased pace of doing business. However not every type is appropriate for every instance (4). Conference calls don't work when very quick