Commercial Integrator April 2021 - 40

INDUSTRY BLC Virtual 2021

NSCA executive director Chuck Wilson speaks with NSCA chief economist Dr. Chris Kuehl
about the state of the economy and the future outlook at Virtual BLC 2021.

perspectives, which moves us in the right
direction. "
It's important to " challenge inherent
biases, " said Joseph. " They impact the
way we lead and the decisions we make.
Diverse teams work precisely because
they're harder. You have to compromise
and work together. "
Business leaders must fight " systemic
challenges " to attract and recruit talent,
said Joseph. Those challenges include
where you advertise your job openings,
he said.
" We have to think about the way we
think, " said Joseph. That includes eliminating biases of all types, such as conformity
biases, halo effect biases, the horns effect
bias where one bad thing poisons the well
and the attribution bias, where you explain
away one person's success.
" We should celebrate the things that
make us different, " said Joseph.

Technology Can Do Innovation
and Iteration
" Never have I seen accelerated digital
transformation as I have seen in this one
year alone, " said Brian Solis, global innovation evangelist for Salesforce during his
Executive Power Hour presentation.
" With this pandemic, we have seen not
only digital first accelerated, but we have
seen mindsets change as a result, " he
40 Commercial Integrator APRIL 2021

CM2104 pp38-41 BLC.indd 40

said. " On the business side of things, this
is where we have to accelerate in order to
catch up and get ahead. "
Solis's own company has announced that
it is going to keep a hybrid model moving
forward indefinitely. This change is a result
of the impact of the pandemic, but pushes
forward the idea of Digital Darwinism - a
phrase coined by Solis which posits that
the evolution of society and technology impacts behavior, expectations and customs.
Disruptive times lead to innovation.
There are two types of paths to this. There
is the " aha " moment where an innovator
conceives of an advancement and builds it
in order to drag people toward advancement - think Steve Jobs.
Then there is the " uh-oh " moment,
which is far more common, where an innovator sees a problem and understands they
need to advance people in order to solve
that problem.
" There's always going to be a next big
thing, " says Solis. " On the tech side we
have IT-enabled AV pros, where we're starting to think like IT professionals. We have
working from anywhere which is transforming every aspect of office infrastructure. We
have the hybrid workforce. We have edge
computing. We have remoting everything -
medicine, learning, you name it.
" The question is: does it make me innovative if I'm jumping on all of these innova-

tive trends, " says Solis. " The answer is: sort
of. It's a matter of perspective. Technology
in and of itself isn't the innovative aspect of
things. It's about being up with these trends
but using them differently. "
Anything new seems innovative, but
that isn't the case. New technology can
instead be implemented in a way that is
iterative, allowing organizations to do the
same things better. Innovation, on the
other hand, allows organization to do new
things. Iteration is natural because we have
a tendency to project ourselves onto what
is new. The secret to innovation is to leave
your current workflow at the door.
The goal for integrators is to understand
what new technology is going to do for
their customers. Will it innovate or will it
iterate? Will a new system improve current
workflows, or introduce something completely new? When integrators can effectively communicate the true transformative
capacity of a new technology customers
will walk away happier.
" The customer's experience is the sum
of all engagements a customer has with
your organization in every touchpoint
throughout their journey, " says Solis. In
order to truly help customers innovate the
message of innovation must come through
at every touchpoint.
There is nothing wrong with iteration.
Technology can be a great way to improve
how things are done. But make sure when
a customer wants to innovate that you're
giving them the right tools to do so.
commercialintegrator.com

3/15/21 2:53 PM

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Commercial Integrator April 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Commercial Integrator April 2021