Keep Up, But Don't Get Ahead

When I became a parent for the first time, I was alternately desperate for sage advice and thoroughly fed up with getting unhelpful advice. I even got a piece of advice that turned out to be both sage and unhelpful: "you can parent too much or your can parent too little."

Technologists all start out eager to learn something new--and we do. We often master whatever technology we happen upon first. Few of us make a carefully weighed decision about what technology is our first love. Sadly, many more recent technologists never fell in love at all: they did make a conscious decision to pursue a particular technology in search of easier paths to employment.

However we came to the field, some of us retain a zest for learning new technologies. Others of us become grumpy old technologists, trying to avoid novelty. Very few of us retain just the right amount of interest in the new while maintain proficiency in the old. It seems that if you are a technologist, you can either be overly interested in novelty or overly attached to familiarity.

Being too eager or not eager enough, however, is usually not the technologist's problem, but rather their manager's problem. Technical leadership requires that you stay current enough to be credible while refusing to jump on bandwagons without a good reason.

Determining when to jump on technology bandwagons is yet another vital skill that They Don't Tell You About Until It Is Too Late. Few technical contributor careers teach this skill. Few MBA programs teach this skill. Many painful experiences teach this skill. Like many technologists, I enjoy figuring things out for myself; like many technologists, I usually am not paid to discover what is already well-known.

Let us consider the three options:

1. Too quick to jump;
2. Too slow to jump;
3. Perfect in your timing.

When You Are Too Quick

Time, tide and technology wait for no one. Newer is better. Don't fix what you can replace. These are the kinds of motto one finds in technology. Each of them would make a fine bumper sticker.

It seems that we all agree that technology changes and we should keep up with that change. So how can keeping up be bad? Keeping up is bad in these cases:

• Too soon: the new technology is cool but not mature: it is buggy and unreliable.
• Too little: the new technology is cool but does not do everything that needs to be done.
• Too modest: new the technology is a small leap forward but requires a large effort to deploy.

When you are too quick, there is disruption and cost and confusion, but no explosion of productivity and quantum leap in operational uptime and no drastic drop in bad things happening. No big problems were solved, despite dollars and time and attention. It is new and shiny, though.

When You Are Too Slow

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Our current solutions work for us. Change for change's sake is bad. Evolution not revolution. These are the kinds of motto one finds in management. Each of them would make a fine bumper sticker.

It seems obviously true that chasing the next thing is a distraction from doing what we are already doing. So how can sticking with what works be bad? Sticking with what you have is bad in these cases:

• Too late: where your current technology touches other organizations staying behind is isolating.
• Too much: the current technology is stable and mature, but requires too much human effort.
• Too limiting: the current technology locks you in a mindset that holds you back (eg faxing)

When you are too slow, there is stability and predictability, but again no explosion of productivity and quantum leap in operational uptime and no drastic drop in bad things happening. Maintenance becomes an issue. Recruitment becomes an issue. Planning is easy though: next year will be just like this year.

When You Get It Just Right

In this case, our motto would not make a great bumper sticker, but it does make a great guiding principle: I am open to change if the cost:benefit is right.

Your technology base can only stay the same forever if your organization does not interact much with business partners or customers, eg the air traffic controllers. The rest of us have to move with the times along these dimensions:

• Staying competitive: if your competitors use it and it is better, then you need to use it.
• PR: if everyone decides that something (eg AI) is hot, then you need a real answer.
• Recruitment: if you are looking experts in out-of-date tech, you are fishing in a small pond.

When you get technology adoption just right, there is little fanfare and a disappointing lack of acclaim because Things Just Work. When your peers ask about a cool new thing they just heard about, you have a considered answer about assessing that technology. Your colleagues find that new things arrive at an acceptable rate and work when they are rolled out. Your recruiters find that potential recruits nod sagely when they hear what technology you use.

But instead of the usual roller coaster ride of waiting too long, then updating too much and too fast, you will be on the rafting ride: a calm, steady, quiet ride with the occasional gentle rapids and long stretches of just getting work done.

You will get your acclaim eventually. As time passes, people who used to ride the roller coaster will make a point of telling you how nice it is NOT to be doing that any more.

While you wait for these laurels you will enjoy as peaceful a career as one can have in the hurly-burly world of the Technology Leader.