"There is no reason for anyone to have a computer in their home" Ken Olsen – Computer Designer and founder of Digital Equipment
I have just completed a full day's training with my own coach, which was entirely via a telephone line and the web. Originally the workshop was meant to be in New York which would have involved at least 2 days including travel etc.
The technology that we have available nowadays is quite incredible. Sometimes we can certainly ask was life not a lot simpler before voice and e-mail? But then again when you look at a work life balance, today was much better on my sanity than a travel schedule be it fly or drive to New York. I get to receive a great days coaching with 20 other coaches and I still get to have dinner with my family.
My son asked what I had been doing today and I explained that I had been to school on the computer. He is four and that was a perfectly okay explanation, it did not appear unusual to him at all. By the time he is in his work life will all training and meetings be conducted this way?
Part of me hopes not because certainly an art that I sometimes think is being lost is the value of person to person communication. I now see every day how clients in applying for jobs are using the written word, it may seem okay for them to use abbreviations, but they must consider that the same generation may not be reading their application.