LOs and Internal Communication LO26062

From: mbayers@mmm.com
Date: 02/05/01


Replying to LO26039

Peggy wrote in part
>As this seems a pretty pertinent question for LOs, I would like to ask if
>anyone knows of a way to minimize information distribution internally?
>What do LOs do to take all the reams and reams of information that comes
>into and is created by your organization, filter what is relevant to each
>staff member, and send it out in a timely and cost-effective manner?

When we talk about 'reams and reams of information', I think we have
likely confused information and data.

Let me set a situation for you. You are leaving an aircraft which just
landed in Chicago. The flight attendant tells you that the temperature is
32 degrees F. Now, is that information? Is it data? If her communication
helps you decide whether to put on your jacket, then I would call it
'information'. If it does -not- help you, then it might be data. Worse,
if the attendant delivered that communication just as someone else was
telling you which gate your connecting flight was leaving from in just 23
minutes, then that communication was simply -noise- and not even data.

I work in the Information Technology field. Most of my colleagues,
amazingly, cannot offer a useful definition of information. Here's a
paraphrase from a textbook I used twenty years ago: something is
information if it serves to reduce uncertainty in a decision-making
situation. That is, the value of information lies in its ability to
reduce uncertainty. What people hope to get from a stock broker or an
astrologer or a surgeon is information -- something that they are willing
to pay for because it helps people make better ('more informed'!!)
decisions.

With that mini-lecture out of the way, let me suggest that if you want to
give people information, then you must know what kinds of decisions they
are facing and what might therefore be valuable in reducing their
uncertainty. I get a lot of data each day in email. I store some of it
with the hope that it will someday it will become information. I really
like it when someone delivers information. I hate it when people deliver
noise. For me, the question becomes this: what can I do to shift the
balance so that more of what I deliver is information, less is just data,
and none is noise?

Michael A
- Michael Ayers
Mailto: mbayers@mmm.com Voice (651) 733-5690) FAX (651) 737-7718
IT Prof.Dev. 3M Center 224-2NE-02 PO Box 33224 St. Paul MN 55133-3224
Sometimes the right question is, 'Are we asking the right question?'
Ideas contained in this note represent the author's opinions and
do not intentionally represent the positions of anyone else in this galaxy.

-- 

mbayers@mmm.com

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