I was reading Andrew McAfee's latest post, and came across this quote:
...while most organizations are drowning in many kinds of data they are simultaneously starved for vitally important information...
and it hit me that this is a really important point. While organizations do generate a lot of information, they still seem to try and limit information flow under the banner of "need to know" or "this is more information than the average employee needs to be concerned with". This mindset eventually leads to process controls and reduced productivity.
On the other hand, every new 2.0 tool claims to be taming the information overload beast, though many would claim that these tools just create more in-boxes, more information and more overload. To this I say, "So what?". As I see it, anything that may provide better information, even if it means more information, is worth the effort.
The simple fact is that you will never have enough information to make a perfect decision. You just need to figure out how to gather information in the most effective manner before you are required to make a decision. If you get too caught up worrying about information overload and wondering about what you don't know, you will end up following Alice down the rabbit hole. Use the best tools available, gather the best information you can, make a decision and move on.
McAfee goes on to say:
This remedy [allowing free content creation within the organization] does not necessarily include the transfer of any decision rights beyond those related to content creation. In other words, this remedy does not advocate that decisions related to the running of the organization be turned over to any emergent collective. It simply entails the creation of a novel information environment. Decision makers will hopefully consult this environment, but the environment does not become the decision maker.
This sounds like what I have been saying for a long time, that decision making has two parts, gathering and choosing. Choosing still belongs to the party that is accountable for the results of the decision, whereas gathering is a whole new ballgame. Gathering is the place where those that have access to the best tools and methodologies will prevail, because those decision makers will have the best information at the time of choosing.
The moral of the story is, that worrying about information overload is a trivial pursuit that will actually lead to poor data gathering, bad decision making and decreased productivity; while effort spent exploring better ways to gather information will yield great benefit and better decisions.