Scientists, researchers, managers and executives are nearly drowning from information overload. Infoglut impairs their health, impinges on their home life and impedes their ability to make decisions. And it's getting worse
Marshall McLuhan said:
"One of the effects of living with electronic information is that we live habitually in a state of information overload. There's always more than you can cope with."
With the pace of new digital information in the world, expected to double every 11 hours by 2010, everyone needs a robust strategy to become an instant expert on any new topic.
Marketers tell use:
"Even if you do not make the most of your information, you can rest assured your competitor will."
Impossible ? Too hard you say?
Interviewing professionals that have to manage info glut every day as part of their job, (such as librarians, journalists on deadline, TV interviewers, copy writers, freelance writers, researchers, competitive intelligence analysts, MA and PHD students and busy executives) I would asked them: How do you make sense of new information? The result is a simple strategy that anyone can use to become an instant expert on any topic by creating an issues "dashboard"
Here are some examples of the 12 steps
1)Talk to other trailblazers:
It's unlikely that you are the first to explore a new subject area. Google the term. If you get less then one hundred hits, then congratulations! You are one of the first people in the world to coin a term or spot a new emerging issue or a weak signal of change. If not, then talk to the subject matter experts, thought leaders and opinion-makers. Who has written academic or mainstream articles on the issue? Who blogs on the topic ? Who's just written a fresh new PHD dissertation on the topic and has a broad 10,000 meter overview? Etc
2) What's changed or changing?
What's the traditional point of view on the topic or issue? What do we take for granted about ....issue X? Create a mental map or mental model of the orthodox conventional view of the world and the emerging mental map with the new embedded issue. What's the dominant idea here? What's changed? Compare the old value map to the new value map.
Create and maintain your own mental map or worldview on how issues react or interact.
3)How is the issue morphing or changing?
Is interest on a topic /issue growing or waning? Is it Wired or Tired ? Is it morphing ? Growing? Accelerating ? Peaking ? Plateauing? Dipping ? Free falling? Or just meandering along ?
4) Use technology to track a new issue
Use Google or Yahoo alerts to track a new issue or to pinpoint where we are today on the issue "S" curve. Use Google Scholar and Google Trends or other scanning tools to spot where the issue sits on a trend curve (i.e. # of papers published per year ) and to tell you how many other people are interested in the topic.
5)Track not just Issue Supporters but Detractors and Nay Sayers too.
Not only is it important to track experts and opinion leaders that support your point of view on an issue but the nay sayers too. These are the folks that bring up the uncomfortable data that don't quite fit the conventional mental model and are ignored by the staunch issue supporters. They are the ones to spot anomalies, paradoxes, contradictions, disparities and inconsistencies which could turn out to be threats or in fact, new opportunity windows.
6) Ask key questions about an issue or topic and its consequences
What does this issue enhance? What does the issue leave behind or obsolesce? What does it retrieve or bring back (..that was once obsolesced)? At the extreme, if everyone is preoccupied with the issue, what happens, what flips or reverses?
7) Think about your Thinking
To become proficient on any topic, you need meta-thinking, or thinking about the thinking needed for the next step. What information do I have? what's missing? How do I get what I need? etc
Source: The Search--Find--Explore Workshop; The Latest Tools for Advanced Environmental Scanning, Managing Information Overload and Sense-making; presented by the The Smart Economy
Curious about the other 5 steps or interested in managing Info-stress at your work? contact us to book a workshop at your organization.
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Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "
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