When technology fails you!
I wrote an MM last week, that didn’t get saved! When I came to review the work, already completed, it hadn’t saved it. I had sensed something was wrong and had saved the content, just in case, but deleted it after I did a cut and paste, again. Only to find out it didn’t save, again, and I’d deleted everything this time đĄ.
All of you, who have experienced this, will understand my pain. I also had a glitch with MS365 where I couldn’t access or change my Word documents, PowerPoint or Excel spreadsheets as it didn’t recognise my password. How annoying not to be able to fix this without calling someone!
It made me realise that the tech world is shifting along at such a pace that they are creating these problems by making improvements. Everything is done to make it more efficient, look better, more productive, faster, more human and more user friendly, but it can leave some of us behind, at times. This is frustrating.
I remember in ‘the good old days’ when we handed out feedback sheets at the end of a workshop or training session. Most people, begrudgingly, filled them in before rushing off home and we got some good information regarding things they liked or disliked, which helped to fine tune the next delivery. During CV-19, this all stopped and our business panicked and went into ‘virtual delivery mode’ which took out the hard copy feedback sheet.
We never returned to giving these out, even when we resumed face-to-face training. Suddenly, I realised we were doing some great stuff but not getting any evidence to share with our clients or associates. I’d taken my eye off the ball and had forgotten that getting feedback helped us in many ways, which is why we did it in the first place. For instance it:
- Helps maintain standards
- Identifies strengths
- Highlights development areas
- Supports us in sharing the feedback with clients and associates
With that in mind, I created an evaluation form and linked in a QR code (simple when you know how!) and we have started to use these with every workshop. The feedback is immediate and can be shared in moments, which is so powerful.
I can’t imaging going back to a hard copy feedback sheet ever again and this identified a simple, but painful, lesson to keep on top of the advancements in technology and stay relevant in the eyes of your clients and the people that work with you.
If you take your eye off the ball, there will be a price to pay at some point. It’s like leaving all of your computer ‘updates’ to the end of the year, it’s excruciatingly slow, time consuming and costly, especially if you lose all of your hard work!
Enjoy the week ahead – learn something every day