Overloaded - CPA Australia

Information
overload
Overloaded
Too much information is an increasing
problem for business decision-makers,
but there are ways to dump the
“intellectual garbage”.
By Dr Colin Benjamin
22
I N T H E BL AC K D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 9
H
ow do we restore meaning and value to our
­corporate lives when more than half the ­business
workforce believes that less than half of the
information they receive is valuable?
Four out of 10 people indicate they are aware
that they have used the wrong or out-of-date
information at least once a week. Consider the
fact that IBM’s 400,000 employees sent 12 million instant messages
to each other a day, before the arrival of online social networking
sites Facebook and Twitter.
Administrative and accounting clerks spend about
a quarter of their day searching for ­i nformation that
someone else in their firm needs to do their job,
before getting back to their work station to stem the
tide of emails and ­dealing with other information
overload effects.
According to Basex, a leading information technology research company, American firms sacrifice a
trillion dollars a year in lost ­productivity. Information
overload, pollution and interruptions are the plague
that has arrived with the ­i nformation and knowledge
revolution.
Over the past decade we have been hit by a ­combination of worldwide effects that compound a sense of unsurety – measured by
counsellors and psychotherapists as increased levels of anxiety,
stress, mood disorders and panic attacks.
The weekly editions of the major newspapers carry more
­i nformation than the average citizen of the 19th century was able to
access over a lifetime and the daily news channels cover more
­stories from around the globe than the average community would
have received from beyond their communal boundaries in a lifetime
a century before. The diversification of media channels, ­communication formats, business intranets and advertising frames mean
that the average business decision-maker may have to read the
equivalent of five editions of War and Peace each week just to sort
out requirements for basic commercial realities associated with
emails, the internet and other sources of information overload.
Our offices
are becoming
overloaded with
data flows that
do not necessarily
inform
ILLUSTRATION NED CULIC
Information overload is a term coined by American technological writer and futurist Alvin Toffler, and refers to an excess
amount of information being provided, making the processing and
absorbing of tasks very difficult for the individual because ­sometimes
we can’t see the validity behind the information. In the 1970s,
Toffler predicted that we would be impacted by “future shock”,
based on his detailed studies of the acceleration of change and its
psychological effects. He indicated that as the rate of change and
sources of knowledge expand beyond the capacity of any individual
to manage the flow, let alone the content, people would just give up
I N T H E BL AC K D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 9 trying to make sense of their rapidly changing
world. This reaction was likened to the shell-shock
and post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) that
come with exposure to wars and ­c limatic
­d isasters.
There is no doubt that this ref lects our
­experience in the face of the avalanche of new
sources of information arriving at an increasing
speed via a diverse range of new technologies. At
the same time we are faced with a greater range
of forms of information that are more densely
transmitted with a significantly expanded range
of cross-border and cross-disciplinary content.
Today’s newspaper used to be tomorrow’s
­w rapping paper for fish and chips. Now information comes via Moore’s Law on faster and denser
chips that make it impossible to know what will
be invented next.
This raises a range of issues in relation to the
­concept of information overload, ranging from
­concerns about information fatigue, information
interruption, information access and information
transparency that require attention to the costs
and benefits of faster and more voluminous flows
of data, knowledge and decision management.
While our brains have an immense capacity to
store more and more of this information, and can
develop methods to process it, our brains cannot
provide us with relief from the emotional and
physical costs of information overload.
We have no choice about all this – the rate and
density of information flows and access will
­continue to expand at a faster rate. The introduction of digital information is similar to how the
introduction of paper from the Arabs revolutionised the production of books across a Europe that
had been limited to hand ­productions in monasteries in the middle ages. Our offices are becoming
overloaded with data flows that do not necessarily
inform. Our computers are locked up with email
ad spam filters that deny meaningful use of
­communication time. The rapidity of information
updates and new technology makes business
­decisions a response to constant change rather
than consistency and consideration.
David Shenk in his book Data Smog reports that
in the 10 years to 1990, paper consumption in the
US ­t ripled. And, 60 per cent of the average
23
Information
overload
While documentation and
The rate and density
of information flows
and access will
­continue to
expand at
a faster rate
The introduction of digital data
has revolutionised the spread of
information in a similar fashion
to the printing press.
clear communication are essential elements of legal and financial
transactions, senior management can set a better
example in goal clarification, task definition and
project review rather than sending out a search party for more and
more information that has little or no contribution to key business
decisions. Information overload is an unnecessary overhead that
adds to costs through lost opportunities, reworks, missed deadlines
and rising levels of stress in the organisation. Finding ways to keep
a human scale and addressing the need for personal contact goes a
long way to building trust and ­confidence in the process of converting data into meaning and information into priority actions
So, where do we start in trying to deal with all of this? Let’s begin
with our own information processing behaviours. Basex analysts
Jonathon B Spira and David M Goldes provide 10 steps to mitigate
overload in their report Information Overload: We Have Met The
Enemy And He Is Us suggesting that we need to refrain from ­sending
unrequited emails that include multiple themes, make sure that
they are clear and comprehensible to a third party and that the
intended recipient is not a mind reader.
Next, we can find ways to retain a high level of personal contact,
use the phone rather than the key pad and work out the difference
between ­priority, necessity and just plain unnecessary communica-
24
I N T H E BL AC K D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 9
tions. Cut the clutter by recognising that around
three-quarters of the processes that keep business
running are now managed via ­document transfers
and emails. In this way we can help add to the
value and quality of the ­i nformation transmission
experience and ­encourage a greater sense of simple processes of being in touch rather than adding
to the complexity of technological transmissions.
Over 40 years ago Ray J Birdwhistell suggested
that: “No more than 30 to 35 per cent of the social
meaning of a conversation or an interaction is carried by the words.”
Information analysts and business process
reviews can play a ­significant part in identifying
the key factors that make the difference between
required information and creative nonsense.
Having access to an audit trail, document
­modification, information management systems
and up-to-date current process status for person-
ILLUSTRATION Ned culic and istock.com
office worker’s time was spent processing paper
documents, which flew in the face of the long overdue
“paperless office” we were all promised. The result
has been that business decision-makers have followed
the Reader’s Digest approach to this information overload by demanding briefings on which of the executive
summaries they receive should be referred to their
cognitive apprentices to establish meaningful priorities among the intellectual garbage. Shenk cites
psychological studies over a 30-year ­period that
accompany information overload including increased
cardiovascular stress and high blood pressure,
­weakened vision, confusion and frustration, and
impaired judgement.
What we need to do now is to start reshaping the
information universe so that we place less emphasis
on memory and fact recognition, and place a higher
priority on insight and foresight. This should build our
creative and sociocultural appreciation of the underlying values and relationship dimensions that arise
from the exercise of choice. Just as we are starting to
learn that heart disease, cancer, strokes, diabetes and
addictions are directly correlated with lower than
required levels of physical activity, we will need to
address our junk information habits and exercise a
selective cogent course of action to make the most of
the potential expansion in information access without
permitting more information overload.
How CPA Australia helps you make
sense of the digital revolution
nel ­reporting cuts out huge amounts of time and
energy seeking the message. This alone can remove
unstructured, undifferentiated and unnecessary
information transmission, cutting the number of
frustrating emails in half and increasing the quality and responsiveness of executive decision-making
considerably.
Finally, it comes down to a process of human
relationships that reduce workplace stress, aggression and feelings of frustration by following the
path of the Native Americans of walking in the
­moccasins of the person one seeks to influence
before sending up smoke signals that fail to communicate the depth of the relationships. Information
overload can be managed with a combination of
sound structures, firm attention to accuracy and
brevity and good communications. n
Dr Colin Benjamin FAICD is chairman of independent think tank
Marshall Place Associates and CEO of the Psychotherapists
and Counselling Federation of Australia. He has extensive
experience at senior corporate levels in the conduct of futures
research.
Members of CPA Australia have access to excellent resources
to help ease information overload. From the CPA Library at
www.cpaaustralia.com.au/library members can access
reliable and authoritative information.
PressDisplay is a convenient way to read all your favourite newspapers
and magazines. You can even share stories with friends through email or
your blog or take it on the road. PressDisplay brings together access to full
content of over 1000 newspapers from 82 countries in 39 languages.
Online journals: Over 1500 fulltext online journals can be accessed via
the ProQuest and Emerald links. Leading management, finance and
accounting journals are available via these services.
eBooks: Access to 600 e-book titles from Books24x7 and Safari Books
online. Topics available include information technology, marketing, leadership, project management and much more.
If you are having trouble finding information use the Ask an Information
Expert link and fill in the form to get assistance from the staff of the CPA
Library.
For more information on these and other services please contact the
CPA Library at 1300 737 737 or email cpalibrary@cpaaustralia.com.au
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