Our Global Reality
In 1968 Peter Drucker wrote a book with an elegant title, The Age of Discontinuity. In this book he identified four main topics which he believed would exert a profound influence on the shape of our world:
* the explosion of new technology, that could be expected to result in major new industries emerging and older ones disappearing.
* the change which he saw taking place from an “international” economy to a “world” economy.
* the need which he saw for organizations of all kinds to learn new responses to the rising pressures imposed on them by society as a whole, and by individuals – whether those inside them or those outside them.
* the emerging “knowledge society” and “knowledge economy” and their implications on all of us.
How right he was! And how ill-prepared most of us were…and most businesses and governments still are to this day.
As I look back over the last two decades, the pace and scope of change is breath-taking. Businesses and governments today face a dramatically new and different environment.
* Low rates of growth in demand and in income, at home and overseas
* Under-employment of resources
* Major fluctuations in the value of our dollar, and of other currencies against each other, bringing radical shifts in competitive advantage.
* Old markets, old customers, and old suppliers changing and often disappearing
* New technology to master, in every job.
* New knowledge to acquire, in every job.
* New public and social demands.
* New and changing expectations from within organizations as new values, new faces and new skills replace old.
As Clifford Stoll, author of High-Tech Heretic: Reflections of a Computer Contrarian, Silcon Snake Oil, and The Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage has noted:
Data is not information, information is not knowledge, knowledge is not understanding, understanding is not wisdom.
To address these new realities we must take the time to stop and think. We need to question for clarity with our peers and especially with those for whom we are designing. We need to take the time to learn from a variety of cultures, values, and ideals the world over.
There is no top 10 list that will resolve an organizations’ fundamental issues with staff or clients. There is no application you can download or purchase that will make you millions.
The scope of of these issues was summed up beautifully – the pace at which this change has overwhelmed the world – by the author of The World is Flat, Tom Friedman:
I just went back to the first edition of The World Is Flat which I started writing in 2004, came out in 2005. I looked in the index of The World Is Flat; I looked under “F”. Facebook wasn’t in it. When I said ‘The World is flat, we’re all connected!’… Facebook didn’t exist, Twitter was a sound, the Cloud was in the sky, 4G was a parking place, Linked In was a prison, Applications were what you sent to college, and for most people Skype was a type-o!
I believe the essence of the UX discipline has the potential to push beyond the usual conversations of the tools and methodologies we hear about everyday. This is possible if we take the time to think about the variety of values, ideals, and insights of others whose culture and experiences differ greatly from our own. The average person cares little about technology so long as it works and becomes a ubiquitous part of their everyday lives.
I believe that collectively there is nothing we cannot accomplish so long as we don’t make such findings about any one individual, process, or company. Our problems our global. Our solutions must take these realities into account for the benefit of all.
If only we stop to think.
If only we take the time to question the experts and look to others outside our discipline consistently for inspiration and new ideas.
