The Relationship Revolution, an essay written in 2001, loses none of its insight 3 years later.
bq(blockquote).. In truth, we are not at the beginning, middle or end of an Information Age. Those images, those metaphors, conceal rather than reveal what’s really going on here. While it is true that digital technologies have completely transformed the world of information into readily manipulable bits and bytes, it is equally true that the genuine significance of these technologies isn’t rooted in the information they process and store.
A dispassionate assessment of the impact of digital technologies on popular culture, financial markets, health care, telecommunications, transportation and organizational management yields a simple observation: The biggest impact these technologies have had, and will have, is on relationships between people and between organizations.
The so-called “information revolution” itself is actually, and more accurately, a “relationship revolution.” Anyone trying to get a handle on the dazzling technologies of today and the impact they’ll have tomorrow, would be well advised to re-orient their worldview around relationships.
