Nancy Koehn on Harnessing the Power of Technology | Big Think

Nancy Koehn on Harnessing the Power of Technology

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How can we harness the power of technology?

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Nancy Koehn:

Nancy Koehn is a historian at the Harvard Business School where she holds the James E. Robison chair of Business Administration. Koehn's research focuses on how leaders, past and present, craft lives of purpose, worth, and impact.

Her new book, Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times is an enthralling historical narrative filled with critical leadership insights that will be of interest to a wide range of readers—including those in government, business, education, and the arts—Forged in Crisis spotlights five masters of crisis: polar explorer Ernest Shackleton; President Abraham Lincoln; legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass; Nazi-resisting clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer; and environmental crusader Rachel Carson.

Koehn is the author of numerous books, articles, and Harvard Business School cases. She writes frequently for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Harvard Business Review Online. She is also a weekly commentator on National Public Radio and has appeared on many national television programs. She has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Aspen Ideas Festival, and in many other venues.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University, Koehn earned a Master of Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government before taking her MA and PhD in History from Harvard. She lives outside Boston and is a dedicated equestrian.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Question: How can we harness the power of technology?

Koehn: I think finally we need to begin to use the technology that now connects us in astounding ways. When the Internet was first commercialized, it was going to be like the television. And it was going to be like connecting eyeballs, like households that view a certain program. The Internet is not going to be like that. We’re in really a very different chapter now. We’ve come a long way in 10 years in terms of the commercialization and ultimate use of the Internet. And the Internet is going to become not only like a global library and a global stage, alright? It’s going to become a global classroom. I view what’s happening on the Internet right now in terms of the way people are using it . . . Think of YouTube, or think of some of the most popular sites that are used on the Internet – sites like The Secret, this very interesting small budget film that came out a year ago about how to live a rich, good life – the secret of living well – that was launched on the Internet. And it was the most popular site, or one of the most popular sites for a number of weeks. This kind of occurrence . . . this moment is equivalent to the printing press. It is fundamentally going to change how people know, and learn, and think about themselves and their place. And so I think that we need to learn to think strategically, and as global citizens and leaders about the Internet as opposed to what it’s really become . . . been for the first decade if its life – and that is a very interesting, very accessible kind of box, or addict, or basement where we put things, or go to things. And then we create, you know, California Closets or Google that helps us organize those. No, no, no, no, no. The Internet is the most powerful technological innovation in a thousand years . . . or 900 years. And now we need people willing to step up to the plate and say, “How are we going to use the power of this technology to unite the world and connect us along uplifting reasons rather than baser reasons?”