I was speaking with an attorney colleague today who expressed to me some frustration with her efforts to have her staff trained on some new technology she has installed in her office.
She explained that she thought the person who did the installation understood the technology but the training just wasn’t working. She is frustrated, no doubt her staff is frustrated, and the technology person is probably frustrated too.
This problem is not at all unusual, and it is frequently one of communication. It comes down to this: technology folks tend to speak one language, attorneys a different one, and lay people still another. In the the end this communication issue often leaves the attorneys feeling as if both their time and money has been wasted and that the staff will never be able to properly utilize the new technology.
Don’t give up if your problem is simply one of communication. What you need is someone who can help your technology expert understand what your staff needs to learn to do their jobs (and what they don’t need to learn) and who can either help the technologist appreciate how to convey the appropriate information or perhaps do the training instead of or with the technology expert.
I prom
ise you, if you have installed the correct technology and find the right person to either translate between you and your technologist or actually conduct the training; you will have a better, more efficiently run office for your money and your efforts.