I read the article and I thought I would comment on the following portion:
"In my own strange thought pattern, I am wondering if by forcing the issue of technology and by pushing the importance of it, am I only making it worse? If people don't understand technology and aren't open to it but you consistently try to convince them they are missing opportunities and just don't understand it, would that really change their mind or just make them more defensive?"
I found this statement to be interesting. At my last job, I was the accidental techie. I became more interested in technology when I realized how much it could help us achieve our mission. I don't fault people for not understanding technology, but I do fault managers at the top for not encouraging their staff to learn about it. Technology is the future, it is by the numbers statistically proven to help improve services in a number of ways. To simply "put learning it on hold" until people are ready is in my opinion, placing the organization in a dangerous place. Where I use to work, if the top management had encouraged individuals to learn how to use the database, then when I left they organization wouldn't have been in a situation where no one knew how to find information" This is where the for-profit sector thrives. In the non-profit sector people are so worried about stepping on peoples toes, about being kind and considerate, but sometimes it can hurt
an organization. If people don't want to learn something, then what should a manager do?
Again, where I use to work, we had a marketing person unaware of web design or e-newsletters, and a PR person who wouldn't learn how to do website stuff or e-communications, and a person who dealt with the board who refussed to update phone numbers in the database. If the Exectuive Director emphasised the importance I gurantee the individuals would have listened more.
To answer the gentlemen's question, no I wouldn't wait. I think anyway to improve something shouldn't be put on hold.
Victoria
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