Retro is best – Nokia 3310 makes its return.

So I woke up to the news this morning and no mention of Donald Trump, a good start to the day. Clearly the news has been dominated by “that envelope” at the Oscars but the piece of news that really grabbed my attention was the return of the Nokia 3310, one of the phones that really led the mass adoption of mobile phones across the world. Their simplicity and low cost, their reliability and long battery life all served to make them popular. From that list, the one element that works most for me is simplicity.

In my blog last week, I talked of engagement in projects and how important it is to engage with all staff from the initial planning stage through and beyond implementation and the best way to do this is to talk, face to face, like we did before email and mobile phones.

As with the 3310, simplicity of communications is the best way and talking is the most simple and effective way to communicate. Talking should go hand in hand with listening and therefore create effective two way communications or relationships. You cannot do this via email, SMS or social media, it needs to be two way and face to face. What we can do in the modern world is use video conferencing, Skype etc and that gives us an almost face to face conversation, but there is no real substitute for talking face to face.

So just as the Nokia 3310 is making a return, proving that retro styling is fashionable, so we need to return to old methods of communication to ensure that projects and businesses are successful. These can be used in conjunction with modern technology but should not be ignored because of technology.

Let me know what you think.