Taming of the Computer : Managers Fight Phobias to Get on Line

When Terry Whitesides served as a fire technician on a U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer during the Vietnam War, he knew that loose lips could sink ships. But what lurked in the back of his mind was the damage he could accidentally do by misdirecting the World War II-era analog computer that his ship relied on for fire control.

“I think everyone goes through a very antsy stage where you’re fearful of making some mistakes,” recalled Whitesides, who now uses desktop computers in his job as a business services support supervisor with the San Diego Unified School District.

“Computers are initially very intimidating,” he conceded. “You think they’re almost human, and that if you make a mistake, you’re stupid or won’t be able to fix it. Some people never get over it.”

For Mark Berger, the computer class offered by the San Diego Professional Property Appraisers Assn. opened the door to a new experience. His only previous on-line time had been with a hand-held calculator. But even the mechanically inclined Berger dreaded learning to operate his new IBM PC. “It wasn’t because I didn’t think I could do it,” Berger explained, “but because the knowledge level needed to operate it was so large. I looked at the thing and realized I was already a year behind.

“If you’re afraid of machines, and a lot of people are, it will be very intimidating. One thing I was afraid of was spending . . . two or three weeks on a project and then hitting the wrong key and losing it all, seeing all that work evaporate.”

Then there’s the large San Diego corporation that for years banned computers from its offices, reportedly because a powerful but backward executive vice president scorned word processors as “toy typewriters.”

To this day, a San Diego consultant claimed, the company’s bookkeeping is done by hand.

“There are people who welcome technology, who are waiting for it to come in,” said another San Diego computer consultant. “Then there are those who accept it because it’s there, but who won’t make any effort to use it until you show that it’s as automatic as possible.

“I’ve also seen some people that just don’t have the slightest idea about what a computer is, other than that it’s some mystical, magical thing to be held in reverent awe. They say, ‘I’ve got a computer on my desk. Don’t mess with it.’ ”

That contrasts radically with National University President David Chigos, who has been logging onto National’s computer system for 10 years. He acknowledged, however, that some executives and managers aren’t ready to pound a keyboard or move a mouse.

“That man over there resisted using a computer for five years,” Chigos said, pointing across his open office to a university official. “Each time he had to use one he had a secretary do it for him.”

All the talk about computerphobia, then, is not just talk, because there are people for whom computing simply does not compute.

“The unfortunate truth is that some people seem to take to them, while others don’t, and there are few in between,” said Ted Crooks, a San Diego computer consultant. “Pep talks won’t overcome it. Some people are born with green thumbs, others have keyboard fingers.”

Kyle Roach, a product consultant with Home Federal Savings & Loan’s information systems division, spends part of his working day with computer neophytes, some of whom exhibit computerphobia.

“Some people feel very comfortable,” Roach said, “but there was one (person) who actually got physically nauseated because the computer intimidated him so much.”

Chigos doesn’t understand that kind of intimidation, but he seems an exception to the notion that executives and managers don’t use keyboards. He admitted that it took him the better part of a year to master National’s computer system.

While the phobias can generally be dealt with, there are other problems that confront managers who are in line to go on line.

One is the “ingrained stereotype that keyboards are for women and not for managerial people,” Crooks said. “I’ve talked to executives who say, ‘I’ll have a girl do that because there’s a keyboard (involved).’ ”

That backward approach can backfire, Crooks warned: “What computers have done is create a sneaky career path for a lot of secretarial people who can advance themselves by getting computer skills.”

A more difficult barrier between managers and computers is time.

“Managers are busy people,” said Roger Silliman, director of training for Muir Training Technologies, a San Diego computer consulting firm. “To be a hacker on a computer takes an investment of time that they usually don’t have. But managers need to direct people who are using computers, even if they don’t have time to take out of their schedule to attend a computer class.”

When Steve Jontez, president of a Poway-based consulting firm, installed a new computer network for a local TRW operation, he was distressed to learn that it wasn’t being used to its potential.

“These people are engineers, not the type to be intimidated by technology,” he said, “and this is a very user-friendly system. But the people are very busy doing business, and they don’t have time to use something that takes lots of effort.”

The solution? A series of half-day tutorials that will boost learning curves and, subsequently, productivity.

Businesses can’t afford to let managers be governed by phobias, stereotypes and time constraints. That’s why executives often turn to consultants or internal information centers such as Home Federal’s to spread the on-line gospel to far-flung corners of the management world.

In 1983, Great American Federal Savings and Loan had only a handful of personal computers on its managers’ desktops, said David Carr, senior vice president in charge of the company’s information center.

But a computer boom was on the horizon. “One could see it was very important to establish controls and standards, to have a certain crispness to the (personal computing) process,” Carr said.

Great American wanted its newly created information center to be staffed by people who could talk to both the data processing experts and the bankers.

Carr, a certified public accountant with a data processing background, serves as a friendly guide to first-time adventurers in the computer world. “Someone with curiosity, who has the time and is willing to explore personal computing, is in the minority,” Carr said. Consequently, one of Carr’s toughest jobs is dealing with those who lack that curiosity.

“The individual’s enthusiasm is important, and the best way to get the enthusiasm level to the right point is to put them in an educational setting, to show them the ropes with hands-on experience.”

What instructors don’t want to do is overwhelm pupils with technical jargon.

“The only buzzword we use during our three-hour introductory course is ‘cursor,’ ” said Ivy Childs, director of a Solana Beach computer applications training school that was formerly the Kaypro Computer School. “We don’t want to scare them so we take it easy. We explain how the keyboard is different from a typewriter, explain the difference between hardware and software, and tell a little bit about the ‘care and feeding’ of a computer.”

Managers and boards of directors “don’t want someone coming in and speaking down to them,” Jontez said. “That’s the fastest way to lose an audience.”

The best way to convince executives of a computer’s effectiveness is to put concepts in business terms. “Tell a manager the computer will help decide if it’s better to lease or buy (equipment),” Silliman said. “Talk about functions.”

Jim Taft, managing director of Partners Western, Home Federal’s newly developed real estate franchise, said the computer center’s non-threatening atmosphere “helped keep me from making the common mistakes that slow down the learning process.”

Taft, who had little previous computer experience, gained an immediate understanding of how computers could help his small staff function as effectively as a larger staff.

Jontez, a former Home Federal vice president who helped the S&L; move into a new computer system, said companies should help managers and employees adjust to their new lives with computers. He said Home Federal’s computer changeover generated understandable resentment among some managers and employees in 1981.

“But during the next year and a half, (Home Federal was) going to take on five mergers, double the number of branch offices, and go from eight to 180 ATMs (automated teller machines). The system in place had not a snowball’s chance in hell,” he said. “The response time was 30 seconds to two minutes, and, back then, that was acceptable. Now, it’s three to five seconds, and if it drags out to eight (seconds), there’s hell to pay.

“You don’t introduce change for change’s sake, obviously, because in some cases, change brings casualties. But by and large, the people that fall off are chaff anyway, and you probably didn’t need them.”

That prospect, Jontez suggested, is probably the only sound reason for suffering from computerphobia.