I have been using a phase for awhile now. I do not know if I heard this phase from someone else or if it just popped in my head, but either way I have been using it. The phase is ‘Tech is easy, people are hard!’ This phase has been in the forefront of my mind lately as I navigate management and leadership. With that said this article is not about management or leadership but focuses on the part where tech is easy.
Let’s start this topic by defining what I mean by easy, as I know that word is very ambiguous. Also I had a supervisor one time who told me ‘something easy for you might be hard for someone else’. With that said, when I use the word easy what I picture is the old Staple commercial with the easy button. The commercial would have someone who is ‘struggling with something’ and when they go into Staple and meet with the Staple worker about their issue the worker would have them hit this big red easy button. Once the button was pressed their struggled went away and they would use the phase ‘that was easy’. My definition does not mean there isn’t a struggle with tech but once we acknowledged the struggle and ask for help then it becomes easy.
Community
Now the big red easy button might have worked in the commercials but in real life we need to use a different big red button. The big red button I am referring to is the AV community. There are some great communities in the AV/IT world. The top three, in my option, would be:
- HETMA – The HETMA community is made up of higher education technology managers as well as vendors, intragtors, and manufactures. There is a protected section that is just for the higher education members. The community share information, post questions, as well as be the voice for the higher education technology managers in the larger AV vertical.
- AVTweeps – This is a community I came across when I was looking to connect with more AV folks. This community is made up of a wide mix of folks in the AV world. The community is on X, Bluesky, LinkedIN and could be on other social media sites that I am not familiar with.
- Higher Ed AV/IT Slack Group – I will first said I might be bias as I am the one who started this community but it really the members that make it what it is. This is a closed group to just higher education technology managers. The one requirement to be part of this group is you must work in higher education and if you leave higher education you are removed from the group. Just recently this community was awarded the AVNation Readers’ Choice Award 2024 – Best Techal Support.
Any of the above communities, as well as any others that I have not mentioned, are a great way to get help when you are struggling with tech. In my experience these community members do not hesitate to provide guidance, jump on a call, or make connections to help another community member. As the saying goes, two brains are always better than one and that is true when there is a community of folks who are willing to help each other out. Having the community members there to help you allows you to hit the big red easy button and say ‘that way easy’.
Tech is Binary
My next point comes from a discussion I had today. Ryan Gray mentioned that tech is very binary. My understanding of what Ryan meant by this is that making a change in a configuration or setting or etc of a device either works or it doesn’t work. This is just another way that tech is easy. Again it does not mean we don’t struggle with our gear but we can make a change and see if that change improves or worsens the situation. This binary feedback allows us to quickly see if what we are doing is helping or hurting the situation. With settings and configuration following a set of defined rules and outcomes, it allows us tech managers to have a better understanding of what a setting does. We can read about these settings in the user manual and even if that doesn’t make sense to us, we can make a change and see what effect that change has to the overall operation of that device.
People are hard
I know I mentioned that this article is not about mangament but I can not use the statement that tech is easy and people are hard without explaining what I mean by people are hard. In my option the main reason why I consider people are hard is that they are not binary. We can not make a ‘setting’ or ‘configuration’ change and see, quickly, if it improves or worsens the situation.
Also with people there is no defined rule or outcome with them. Each person is different and each person react and think differently than the next. We can try something with one person and have success. Then we can try the same thing with another person and have failure. To have a better understanding of what I mean by no defined rules or outcomes, just look at all the leadership and management books out there. They all have their ideas of what works and what does not work but again what works for one person does not mean it will work for another.
In conclusion
To wrap this article up, both technology and managing people come with their challenges. The difference is with technology is you have defined outcomes that can be quickly measured and adjusted until things go right. There are tons of resources that can also help in addressing issues with technology. Yes there are tons of resources on how to be a good manager but there are no defined outcomes with people so there is no quick way to see if change you make is improving or worsening the situation.