When there is too much information
I’m re-reading Karl Weick’s Sensemaking in Organizations and I thought this idea is worth keeping in mind. When facing conflicting and voluminous information avoid gathering more. Ignorance is not the problem. Rather, focus on principles, values and preferences to help you make a choice. In complexity you are best placed to choose base on plausibility instead of accuracy.
I find it interesting, however, that the knee jerk reaction of most organisations when faced with an unclear path (I suggest, if it isn’t already, this situation will be the norm) is to resort to gathering more information. Is this because these organisations have invested heavily in information technology and analytical professionals who are well equipped for this task?
Shawn, author of Putting Stories to Work, is one of the world's leading business storytelling consultants. He helps executive teams find and tell the story of their strategy. When he is not working on strategy communication, Shawn is helping leaders find and tell business stories to engage, to influence and to inspire. Shawn works with Global 1000 companies including Shell, IBM, SAP, Bayer, Microsoft & Danone. Connect with Shawn on:
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Shawn that is an interesting question / suggestion / observation.
My guess is seeking ‘intelligence’ as a natural fall-back reaction given the technologies available. Just think of the ease, immediacy & (low cost?) of searching due to search engine improvements and open access, collaborative works such as WikiPedia.
Weick does not get the attention he clearly deserves fom the KM crowd methinks. Tacit knowledge, and deep smarts tend to be down-played in favor of hard process.
I’m reminded of Dilbert where the pointy-haired boss requests more information as a strategy to avoid making a decision.
It’s also reminiscent of governments calling inquiries as a way to defer/avoid making decisions.
However…surely there are many situations in which uncertainty arises not from lack of information, but from lack of RELEVANT or USEFUL information. In such circumstances, you would expect to get better quality decisions by obtaining the additional information first, rather than making a decision in its absence.