Does Age Come in the Way of Technology Adoption?
You can’t have a ‘one size fits all’ approach. You need to understand the users’ age demographic and predict their response to change.
Rohan Deshpande
Ogilvy & Mather, CTO
If business imperatives and benefits drive a project then the technology generation gap needs to take a back seat.
T.S. Purushothaman
Reliance BIG Entertainment, VP-Corporate IT
I always factor in the age demographics of my end users while devising the organization’s IT strategy. Innovative IT initiatives engage a vast range of employees, both young and old. And that’s important to watch because the success of technology initiatives lies in accurately predicting, changing, and responding to the ways people think and act.
Hence, we need to slice and dice our user groups to comprehensively understand their age demographics, analyze their technology maturity patterns, and predict their response to change. This helps in efficiently handling the people side of technology. Only then can we generate maximum business value. No matter how robust your IT strategy is if you do not take age into account, your strategy could fail.
There is a technology generation gap in my organization too. Senior management is over 40-years-old and at times it might not be inclined to adopt every new technology. But Gen Y is more technically oriented, and on some occasions, it has also acted as a change agent and infused new ideas. It’s my job to try and mine this generation gap and find a middle path.
You can’t have a ‘one size fits all’ approach. If we are to introduce new technologies, we need to bear their adoption and usability in mind. And that’s where analyzing age demographics can help. They ensure that new initiatives are accepted quickly and also make change more palatable for users.
If you don’t slice and dice your user groups, your project might veer off track and people could choose to go back to old ways of working.
The technology generation gap does not affect my IT implementation strategy in a very big way. But if it crops up, it is the IT department’s job to overcome change management issues. We need to have a robust strategy in place to educate, orient, and train the users.
Having said that, going down to the level of categorizing users based on their age demographics is not vital. If business imperatives and benefits drive a project then we can let generation difference take a back seat. In the meanwhile, we can work with users to decode how a project will impact them.
Whenever new technologies initiatives are in line with business strategy and the expected ROI is very high then technology gap and age demographics can be overcome by providing training to the end user. And if it is not an immediate imperative and is more of a good-to-have then the decision is taken in consultation with functional teams. If there are immediate intangible benefits and long-term tangible benefits, then the project is implemented.
I do not slice and dice my user groups according to their age profile to understand user acceptance before initiating my projects. We do not base our decisions on age of people. It is based on the contribution and interest taken by the individual in the project to drive the project and derive benefits out of the project. We ensure that all support is given to the user (irrespective of age) in terms of training and consulting.
While crafting my IT adoption strategy, I am not concerned about how users of different age groups will respond to change. In my opinion, IT adoption is based on an individual’s interest in the project rather than his age. Sometimes even two people of the same age group do not show the same level of interest. Therefore, it is based on the individual’s interest and inclination to learn and get involved.
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