Everything is Miscellaneous*

In organisations, large amounts of time can be wasted transferring information between people and functions.  Information is passed sometimes as a tangible object and sometimes as an intangible.  Often not enough thought is given to the difference between the two.

The tangible objects include documents, policies and spreadsheets.  The transit of these tangibles can be observed and measured.  Information in its intangible form include aspects that are harder to observe and measure, such as understanding, commitment and intention. 

You can see if tangible objects go missing or become damaged in transit.  You can tell if they are double-handled or applied incorrectly.  On the other hand detecting the loss, damage, double-handling or misapplication of intangible information is much harder.  You find out when it is too late, such as following a mistake.

For thousands of years, accountants have been aware of the problem and have applied techniques such as double-entry book-keeping and balancing to uncover damage to information in transit.  Other actors have had less time to become aware of, and deal with, the problem.  Often they are unable to perceive the problem for what it is and conclude the problem with the phrase: "we need to communicate better."  It doesn't explain how or when we will communicate better, or it may impose a high cost in terms of time or effort to do so.  The phrase is inconclusive because it does not address the source of the problem.

One source of the problem is that many of the tools we use were developed for a world of physical objects.  Many of these tools are less appropriate for our times, but many people have not grasped it.  In this entertaining Google "Tech Talk", David Weinberger explains how outdated methods impose severe limitations on thought, ideas and information:

Many individuals and organisations would benefit by increasing employee awareness of the problem and by providing training in and applying updated techniques.

*My blog post heading taken from the book "Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder" by David Weinberger.  An interesting and rewarding book.

Information overload - a growing problem, but nothing new

The amount of digital data on the web has been estimated as being more that one zettabyte (10²¹ bytes).
 

As the volume of information grows, it is unsurprising that an increasing number of people are feeling pressured by 'information overload'.
 

You might be surprised to learn, however, that it isn't a recent problem. In her book, Too much to know, Ann Blair traces information overload as far back as the 3rd or 4th century BC to the Book of Ecclesiastes and relates Seneca's 1st century lament 'distringit liborum multitudo' ('the abundance of books is distraction').

Blair is a professor of history at Harvard University. In her examination of the past, Blair finds lessons for our present time: 'It's important to remember that information overload is not unique to our time, lest we fall into doomsaying. At the same time, we need to proceed carefully in the transition to electronic media, lest we lose crucial methods of working that rely on and foster thoughtful decision making. Like generations before us, we need all the tools for gathering and assessing information that we can muster—some inherited from the past, others new to the present. Many of our technologies will no doubt rapidly seem obsolete, but, we can hope, not human attention and judgment, which should continue to be the central components of thoughtful information management.'