Are Content Teams Adopting New Technology Too Quickly?
The tools available to content teams are developing at extraordinary speed. Work that once took days can now be completed in hours, while new platforms promise to make teams faster, smarter and more productive.
“But greater speed does not automatically lead to better content.”
At the upcoming Content Marketing Summit, Amy Nicholson, Director, Content Design at Meta, will explore how teams can embrace change without losing the skills, judgement and creativity that made them effective in the first place.
Ahead of her session, Keep hold of what works, we asked Amy which skills teams risk overlooking, how leaders can distinguish a genuine capability gap from a loss of confidence, and how new technology should be introduced.
Strategy still matters more than speed
As technology makes content easier and quicker to produce, Amy believes the skill teams most risk underestimating is the strategy behind it.
“Don’t lose track of the why,” she says. “It can be easy to create content very quickly these days, but does it still serve the same purpose?”
The ability to produce more content is only valuable if that content continues to support a clear objective. Without that strategic foundation, faster production can simply create more activity, more noise and more material competing for an audience’s attention.
“Tools are only useful if they get you to the same goal faster.”
For content leaders, that means resisting the temptation to measure progress by output alone. Before introducing a new platform or accelerating production, teams still need to understand what they are trying to achieve, who they need to reach and why the content deserves to exist.
A struggling team may not have a skills gap
When a team is not performing as expected, it can be tempting to conclude that its people lack the necessary skills. Amy argues that leaders should first examine whether they have created the conditions in which those people can succeed.
“There are two halves to running a good team,” she explains. “First is making sure you have the right people for the job. Second is making sure you’ve given them everything they need to be successful—and then got out of their way.”
A lack of confidence can easily resemble a lack of capability. Unclear priorities, constantly changing instructions and uncertainty over individual responsibilities can all prevent talented people from doing their best work.
“If you feel like your team isn’t performing the way you want, or you’re not reaching your goals, make sure you’re giving clear direction, not noise, and helping people feel safe and clear about the role they have to play.”
Before looking outside the team for new skills, leaders may therefore need to look more closely at the environment they have created within it.
Introduce new tools through experimentation
The way a new tool is presented can also determine whether a team embraces it or feels threatened by it.
“If you’re introducing a new tool as the thing that’s going to change everything before someone has learned how to use it, it’ll be hard for them to feel in control of the experimentation,” Amy says.
Rather than forcing immediate adoption or presenting technology as a ready-made solution, leaders should give their teams the freedom to explore what it can genuinely improve.
“Let people play and find the right path that also improves judgement and creativity, rather than forcing the use of something before you’re sure it’s the right path.”
The goal should not simply be to demonstrate that a team is using the newest technology. It should be to discover where that technology can remove friction, create space for better thinking and strengthen the work people already do well.
Join Amy Nicholson at the Content Marketing Summit on 29th September at Events @ No.6 in London for Keep hold of what works—a conversation about embracing new possibilities without abandoning the principles that continue to make content effective.
