Social Technologies

People forget that technologies do not have to physical devices that you hold in your hand: they can be techniques, processes, methods, organizations structures and a variety of "intangible" things. The dictionary definition of technology is "a manner of accomplishing a task especially using technical processes, methods, or knowledge". Seems pretty clear. Why do we so easily forget about these other forms of technology?

In this view of technology, there are certainly technologies that apply to individuals and groups, in other words Social Technologies. Examples can be as wide ranging as:

• 6-sigma processes
• meditation
• the concepts of mental models and blindspots and double loop learning
• the idea of a corporation
• conflict resolution techniques
• voting
• consensus decision making

All of these are technologies, at various stages of development, that enable people and groups to be more effective.

I would argue that the biggest challenges facing humanity today are not so much in the realm of physical technologies as in that of social technologies. Our methods of organization, self-management, and learning need to catch up to the complex, interdependent reality we find ourselves in now.

I have attached a paper I wrote in graudate school about this topic, not because it is great literature, but because its a reminder to me that I consistently loop back to these topics as I go about trying to figure out how to make a difference. Perhaps it may be interesting to you.

The greatest problem is convincing people to invest their time and energy in developing and putting social technologies to use. Or even participating. No one thinks about them this way, few people have good experiences with group process, so no one engages. But I challenge everyone out there to engage in the quest for innovative, better social technology that allows us to be more effective. Instead of throwing your hands up the next time you are in a poorly run meeting that accomplishes nothing, or watching TV and lamenting that we will never get consensus on important issues, please stop yourself and instead recommit to experimenting with others regarding better solutions. If you don't know how to do something, search out methods and people who do seem to have new approaches.

Another secondary problem is that there are many charlatans out there, and people who will exploit others for their own gains. When you start getting into sophisticated human processes there is room for abuse. The solution to that is an open forum regarding peoples experiences with different processes and people. That way we can collectively learn even if we may be prone at time to fall under one spell or another. Because the reality is that it is not as simple as honarable people and charlatans: there is a continuum and we need to begin to be able distinguish what works and what is good from what is damaging or just plain evil.

Let's experiment! Even if you are somewhat skeptical, lets make a commitment to participate in each others experiments. That is the only way to learn and move forward.

Social_Tech_BAM.doc