Technology is a Conduit for Change

While it may seem obvious to some, there is a necessary relationship between technology and change. In nearly every case, when technology is deployed or employed, it is done so as a part of a change. Whether that change is one of individualized production (e.g., when I signed up for this medium.com blog) or an organizational deployment of technology to some end (e.g., to track sales interactions in a CRM system), technology is the simple machine that both imposes and inspires change on whoever adopts it.

Therefore, by its nature, technology is a tool of change invoking as much as it is a tool to change into using. It is a lever that can be used by those who desire change as much as a tool in the hands of who adopt it. As such, it is a change agent as much as it is a change itself. We use technology as a changer of behavior and a means to improve some behavior into a change.

This means that in our hope and strain to create improvement there is a possible, and at times likely, circular relationship between the change that we hope to create and the tool we hope to use to create it. There is a kind of least common denominator that when removed should leave us with the value and purpose of the change. Or else, we have arrived at what is referred to as “technology for technology’s sake” or “change for change’s sake.”