New Comm Biz

How are we expected to keep up with the speed at which information is coming at us?

• Do you binge, like a tourist at a Vegas buffet?
• Or do you purge and limit yourself like a super model?

Most people take one of two routes:

• Binge until they burnout and then purge. Then like the info junkies they are, binge, purge repeat.
• Be the super model and therefore out of the loop. No one likes to be “that guy” who has no idea what’s going on.

Stowe Boyd has a great post addressing this conundrum.

I think that you have to prioritize your information. Fill it with the most pressing information first. This would include stuff relating to family, work and areas of interest. Then let the other stuff fill in the gaps. I think that it’s important not to consciously “block” information. You never know what could become important. The distinction though is that if it’s not important now, it could become important.

If you have aggregated all of the “non-important” information and let it fill in the rare “free time” it will be there when it is important.

I think another important point to make is that some people are better than others as aggregating information. Those people are very valuable in your organization. To quote a good friend of mine, these are the coal miner’s canaries. Because they have been filtering all of this information they have a good sense of what the dangers and opportunities there are. They may not always know why or have immediate facts, but because they have, at least on some level, processed the information it’s there to trigger those alarms at the right moments.

As Stowe points out,

“We need to unfocus, to rely more on the network or tribe to surface things of importance, and remain open to new opportunities: these are potentially more important than the work on the desk. Don’t sharpen the knife too much.”

I believe the ability to filter and aggregate content is an ever increasingly important skill for business leaders. How can you make the right strategic decisions if you don’t have the right information?  You just can’t do it all yourself.

BTW, have you ever heard a Gen Y (arguably the most social generation we have ever seen) complain about too much information? I haven’t.

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