Friday 1 October 2010

Productivity & The Caveman

There's no doubt that the landscape of the average office has changed over the last 20 years.

In the 80's computers arrived in the corporate mainstream, enabling office workers to write presentable, distributable documentation and create financial and numerical calculations in a traceable and clear way.

Swiftly this was followed by the revolution of email, the panacea to corporate communication, a tool to bring order to the troops, providing a trail of conversation and the extinction of that synonymous phrase 'Did you get my Memo?'.

Over those years, however we've somewhat departed from our roots. Documents, spreadsheets and email has replaced a lot of face to face communication. High quality  conversation has been replaced with high density text, dumbing down the senses of the mind and body to a organic corporate mush generator. I ask you, why does 'steer' have to replace gut feeling and how on earth did 'I'm with you' get replaced by 'Are we singing from the same hymn sheet?'?
In the last few decades we've seen our world change before our eyes, but we're still the same folk who lived in caves and thought sticks were brilliant. We need to physically interact, to share, to touch. We need to feel like we belong and are part of the pack. 

So to you all, step out from behind your glowing screens and the conversations in your mind and go and do what your body tells you, what your mind craves. Get out there, hunt for you want, work together to get it, and take it back to your cave and devour it.

Only then will you really understand what you're missing.

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