HIGH-TOUCH IN A HIGH-TECH WORLD
Grand Valley State University Commencement Speech given on April 30, 2005
Washington,
May 9, 2005 -
Good morning. Thank you for inviting me to join you today. My objective is to share a single thought for you to take with you, something that you will remember.
Today I want to talk about being high-touch in a high-tech world. What does that mean?
Answer me a very simple question: What is the most annoying sound in America today? Any ideas or suggestions? Let me tell you what I believe it is. I believe it is this electronic device in my pocket – my personal cell phone. Wouldn’t you just love to do this?
Why is this phone so annoying? Why is a Blackberry so annoying? Very simply: When the phone rings, people often answer it! People walk around campus or in Washington like this – either that or e-mailing franticly on their Blackberry. They clearly signal to those around them that they are wedded to their technology. Do not approach them. Why? In a rapidly changing world, people like the impersonal nature of technology. It is easy. It can be turned off. And it requires no personal involvement.
The Intelligence Community in Washington in the 1990s was captured by its fascination with technology. A great deal of money was poured into the ability to access and manage information.
Unmanned technologies became extremely popular. Signals and electronic surveillance were widely practiced. Satellites 300 miles overhead can see objects 30 inches across on the ground.
We fell so in love with technology that we discounted the need for human intelligence, commonly referred to as spies. Spying with computer equipment was easier than training humans. Human intelligence was just too hard and risky. Our fascination with technology meant that in 2001, when people asked: What do we know about Al Quida? What do we know about Osama Bin Laden? The answer was very clear: Very little. It is hard to electronically intercept messages that are carried by human couriers.
Let me provide you with a local example. A school district eliminates busing because they had run out of money. People had to drive their kids to school. Some had to travel 30 minutes each way. What a terrible situation. Wrong! It worked for the school and the parents. Parents locked in a car with their children for 30 minutes each day actually had to talk to them. Teachers and administrators who needed to talk to a parent about their children could do it each morning or evening as the parents dropped off or picked up their kids. Today busing is back, but that community will never forget the benefits of being high-touch with their kids for at least a little while.
At Herman Miller, one of our corporate legends is about a millwright. In old factories, machines ran off of a long shaft that spun rapidly. Machines were connected to this shaft by belts. If the shaft stopped rotating the machines stopped. It was the job of the millwright to keep the shaft spinning. One day at Herman Miller the millwright died. The owner at that time, DJ DePree, went to pay his respects to the widow.
As DJ is meeting with the widow, she brings out a book of poetry. DJ begins to read it and is impressed. It is good stuff. He asks her, “Who wrote it?” The answer was that it was her husband. For years DJ had simply known this man as a millwright, someone who worked in the plant. But he was much more.
It was at that moment that DJ revolutionized the business world by leading the way to participative management, allowing everyone to participate more fully in the company. It required managers to develop more personal relationships with employees to best determine their skills and maximize the potential of their employees.
It was high-touch management. It became the most powerful business and management idea in the last 40 years.
A key to success in your professional and personal life is to develop a passion for investing the time and energy necessary to build close and meaningful relationships.
There is no telling what types of technological advances will be realized in the next 45 years. In the 1960s there were no computers or Internet or cell phones. These are all devices that are now common in your everyday lives.
The threats to the United States will evolve over the next 45 years. The potential threat of terrorists acquiring and using a nuclear weapon is as dangerous if not more dangerous than anything faced during or since the Cold War.
The economic threat posed by China will be far greater than the threat ever posed by Japan. There is a notion in China that the United States will no longer even be a superpower by 2020.
However, I am not in the business of predicting the future. The only thing we know about the future is that it is uncertain.
In an uncertain future, the bottom line is this: I know that relationships work. They make a difference and can be life-changing and life-lasting. High-tech is a result of what people make. High-touch relationships with other people are based on God’s work. They bring out the gifts that God has given each and every one of you.
What does this mean for you as a graduate of Grand Valley State University today? I am thrilled with the potential that I see in this auditorium. I am thrilled by what I believe each and every one of you may accomplish during your professional and personal lives. I can only begin to imagine how the world, our nation or this community might be different because of what you do in the future. Most importantly, how the world will be better.
Final story. An elderly frail woman speaks to 5,000 international folks in Washington, D.C. She has impacted the world with her basic, yet beautiful message. We see her sitting in a car as we are leaving. She touches her hand to the inside of the window. My friend places his hand on the outside. It is so powerful that you sense that the glass could almost melt. How did Mother Theresa instruct us to measure our lives? It is the same lesson that parents give to their children, that D.J. tried to demonstrate to his employees. But Mother Theresa said it best:
“Your life, your soul will be measured by how much you have loved and been loved.
“May God richly bless each and every one of you and give you the capacity to love,” to build lasting and meaningful relationships.
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