I was recently at a family birthday dinner with much activity via Facetime round the table; indeed we ended up connecting two relatives from Toronto and Belfast screen to screen, a modern form of cheek to cheek!

Not everyone was familiar with the technology however; one of the party thought he was looking at a photograph when the phone was handed to him, and thinking he was being asked to comment, duly did just that.

The moment certainly provided dining out material for the rest of the year, particularly for younger family members who couldn't believe humans could be so out of touch.

I'm sure we've all made faux pas with email and the dreaded predictive text; my son keeps a screen shot of a text I sent 2 years ago which said  'Cremated Ted at 5 o'clock' - Ted being my beloved border collie. The message, a reminder to collect him from the kennels should have said, 'Remember Ted at 5 o'clock'. You can only imagine the shock at my seemingly casual disregard to animal life.

The funnies about photo faux pas and worse are an essential fabric of our digital lives, but what if it's not a laugh but a drama; broadband goes down at a critical point when a deadline is looming, or the app doesn't seem to have your boarding pass any more and you are passed the check in deadline.

This week's web crash by Misguided the popular online retailer filled the Twitter feeds for a whole day as its highly publicised sale of the century with 50% off absolutely everything, turned into a great big zero; the crash happened as soon as customers streamed through the digital front door.  A reminder if one was needed that contingency plans and disaster recovery are just as essential in the new world.

Our quest for speed, egged on by endless technological developments, means that important tasks which used to command much more of our time and attention are now crammed into our handheld device with disastrous consequences when things ; as they often do, go wrong.

As consumers our march towards automation and the latest upgrade is a firmly established path, and there is no going back.

Many organisations however are guilty of two sins; the first is believing that there is universal uptake of the latest technology and knowledge, and secondly, investing heavily in glitzy front door digital capability without the necessary checks on what happens when things go wrong down the line.

How organisations adapt culturally during digital transformation is the topic for next week's Industry Council Leadership Forum. It's a critical issue needing a spotlight as employees can make or break a successful transformation. Amongst other factors this depends on how involved they are in the process and critically how confident they are in their board’s ability and commitment to success.

Back to the funnies, sometimes the old ones are the best, for a wee laugh take a look at the famous lift scene with the struggle between human man and woman machine! Parental Advisory Caution applies!