{"id":12390,"date":"2013-10-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/post\/staying-current-in-the-rapidly-changing-world-of-technology\/"},"modified":"2021-12-15T00:11:20","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T05:11:20","slug":"staying-current-in-the-rapidly-changing-world-of-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/blog\/staying-current-in-the-rapidly-changing-world-of-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Staying Current in the Rapidly Changing World of Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the\u00a0reasons our clients hire us is for our knowledge and experience with leading-edge technologies.<\/h2>\n

Therefore, to provide superior service, our consultants need a strategy for staying current with the latest onslaught of technology advances.<\/p>\n

Keeping up to date on new technologies is not just for consultants, however. While we\u2019re always here to help, the impact of technology on business processes and innovation is profound and unavoidable. Every leader must pay attention on some level. But how is this achieved, when life (and the Internet) pulls us in so many different directions?<\/p>\n

This article offers a few simple techniques for continued learning I\u2019ve embraced over the years and, to get you started, provides a brief (and largely unscientific) list of resources for ongoing education gathered from our consultants.<\/p>\n

But first, let\u2019s briefly explore the reasons for investing time to stay current.<\/p>\n

The world is changing very fast, therefore you either keep up or will need to catch up<\/strong>. All of us need to be looking out for new technologies that can open up new business opportunities and\/or decrease our operating costs. Take for example, today\u2019s teens. Many 20-somethings will not deal with your company if they cannot do it via their smartphone. Do you have a mobile-enablement strategy?<\/p>\n

The world also grows smaller every day, meaning far away places affect us and far away people compete with us<\/strong>. For example, are you aware of the technologies that new company in Brazil is using to steal your customers?<\/p>\n

Your relevance depends on it<\/strong>. To lead, you need to ask the right questions. You need good instincts. And to do this you need to know how things work at some meaningful level. When the car repair-person asks you if you\u2019d like to do \u201cxyz\u201d maintenance, how easy is it to decide if you don\u2019t know a camshaft from a piston rod? To lead well, you need the right foundation of understanding.<\/p>\n

Your efforts to stay current function much like a traditional investment. If you stick with it, have a good plan and make regular deposits, your value as an IT leader grows. The converse is also true \u2013 poor planning and small investments can leave you ineffective and irrelevant.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my personal approach for staying current:<\/p>\n

Figure out what\u2019s truly important in your world and then make a plan to get smart on these topics<\/strong>. In my role as Technology Solutions Vice President at Centric, it\u2019s my job to organize practices around technologies to allow us to better serve our clients. Centric is big in custom development and system integration. Therefore, obvious important topics to me are mobile and modern web development (Rails, PHP, CSS, etc.). But we\u2019re also actively building skills in Big Data, and what we feel are soon-to-be-standard enterprise applications such as e-commerce platforms. I regularly read about these topics.<\/p>\n

Make space for learning<\/strong>. A day\u2019s frantic activities will always work to crowd out the strategic. Therefore, you need to give the strategic priority. My current approach is to start one day per week (long before the phone starts to ring) with coffee and my to-read pile. I also go to lunch one day per week with my to-read pile. The approach does not matter so much \u2013 making a habit of it does.<\/p>\n

Spend time with people on the front line of tech<\/strong>. In my world, these people are typically our software architects – amazing folks that are dedicated to staying current. They\u2019re the cool kids that would rather program in the evening than watch the game du-jour. Find these people in your shop, attend their meetings and take them to lunch. Let them tell you all about their latest projects, ask them to show you some code!<\/p>\n

Dream up learning activities.<\/strong> Go after projects that will get you hands-on experience with new technologies. I\u2019ll admit that this is less of a focus for me now. I\u2019ve always attempted to have my hands (at least a little bit) on the keyboard. I was the first to have a home network back when you had to run your own DNS server and hard-wired drops were the only option. For years I was the only one that updated Centric\u2019s website (yes, I wrote a bit of code). Two summers ago I forced my kids to complete Code Academy tutorials (I did them too). You get the picture. Build a website for the Cub Scout troop. Code your own iPhone flashlight app. Define a project that gets you smarter in the things that matter in your world.<\/p>\n

Take Advantage of High-Tech News Aggregation Tools<\/strong>. iPad-friendly tools such as Flipboard<\/a>, Instapaper<\/a>, Feedly<\/a> and Reeder<\/a> are great for building a customized magazine of what\u2019s important to you.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there\u2019s no quick fix for staying current (yes, sadly, it\u2019s like exercise). I\u2019m hoping the advice above is helpful. But for those of you hoping for some quick, \u201cwhere do I go?\u201d kind of help I\u2019ve compiled (with the help of many of our consultants) a list of great resources for continual learning. Block your calendar now and get going.<\/p>\n

Appendix- List of Centric\u2019s Favorites<\/strong><\/h3>\n

News Aggregation Tools<\/strong><\/p>\n