Recently, I realized I was part of the last generation that embraced what “live” was while watching a collection of live SoulHat videos from the early 90s on YouTube. I reverted to a time when I embraced live music by walking into a smoky bar strictly because of a flirtatious guitar rift that reverberated into the streets. Upon entry, I would proceed in an irregular orbit of dancing from a top view, not knowing who the first follower of the initial dancer was. We would only know who was playing strictly by a billboard. When I entered, we were not attached to a handheld computer to take a selfie to validate a social media check-in. Engaged, the tunes minted newly made friends when we realized we were in this moment together.
Memories from the 90s
Unsubstantiated evidence would say that my memories are retained by chemicals and electron movement within my hippocampus and other structures near my Neanderthal-like temporal lobes. I am the generation that benefited from the most advanced technology without the pixelated ability for others to misinterpret. Thank goodness.
Inside a bar, my left hand would grip a Shiner as my right hand was in the air choreographed to the bass drawing my Picasso. Neither hand was conditioned or had the foresight to hold a mobile phone and quickly work through thumb clicks to video a favorite song. Instead, I was absorbed. We were all connected. The introduction of the cell phone is intended to connect us faster, yet has it brought us further apart?
Put down the cell phone for live music
Stop and look. Our species has become permanently attached to our phones to the point our genes are probably being mutated to adjust the functionality of a thumb and our necks accustomed to looking down. It is so bad, that we would succumb to an internally derived embarrassment if we left home without the phone in our pocket. Naked when not in arms reach, we need our phones. Guilty. We need this electronic connection.
We have technology in our hands that can tell us instantly how the daily spike in the value of cobalt increased the stock value of a company in Belgium. We can instantly know who is injured in a fantasy football league, not to mention 5086 reviews in the last year regarding the doctor they saw last night. Damn, we even know the probability of rain in the next five minutes in Osaka, Japan from a lonely bar in Beverly Shores, Michigan.
If you are less than ~25 years old, you do not know life without a cell phone. If you are older than 25, you have a portion of your life when cell phones did not exist in mass. Hold my beer. If you are older than 40, you were the last generation of teenagers that did not have a cell phone for mom to call to get your rear home.
We have transitioned into a workforce where most of us have been accustomed to having a cell phone during our entire professional career. However, organizations still struggle to leverage the phone's functionalities to improve the business.
Embrace the cell phone as a tool in manufacturing
Organizations have allowed the phone to become a distraction versus capitalizing on its attributes. Have you built the trust in your teams to use their tool proactively to find procedures, validate KPIs, or complete checklists? Have you used this tool as a badge to clock in or out or as a safety component to activate a man-down alert? There are more cell phones in manufacturing facilities than pipe wrenches, yet we still use the pipe wrenches more than the cell phones to impact the facility’s profitability.
We are not going back to when cell phones did not exist, but we must strive to find a way to connect. The strategies that leaders must take are to leverage the value of the cell phone to bring us closer together versus the distractions they entice that drive us further apart. To practice this, it may start with putting down the cell phone at your next concert.
Civilness was the only happiness. Time will take that all away from you. You need more. You need more. Things aren’t like that anymore. Soulhat, 1993, Outdebox, Things aren’t like that anymore
Thank you Soulhat.
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