Introduction: In today’s economy, where workers at every level are called upon to think about the work and add appropriate value where they can, not having enough information can reduce the value they are able to add. There can be a number of factors blocking the availability of necessary information.
Sometimes, people don’t take responsibility for passing information to co-workers or colleagues operating across silos and boundaries. Sometimes people withhold information for petty, personal reasons.
There are other instances where people are discouraged from gathering observations or sharing their opinions.
Any ridicule, disinterest and arrogance from leaders teaches people to keep their mouths shut and tend to their own knitting. Another reason people stay quiet is ignorance---being uninformed. The people interacting with the outside world can be clueless.
When left out of the loop, they cannot help but to be faulty receptors. They don’t know what is important. They don’t understand the game plan.
It’s impossible for them to pick up strong signals, let alone subtle indicators of things to come, when they don’t know what they’re looking for, or even that they’re supposed to be looking for it.
Organizations can never achieve optimal performance operating with deficiencies in the flow of critical information. Think of it as if parts of the nervous system were disconnected from the brain. Some messages wouldn’t get through. Some actions would be disrupted.
Additionally, these deficits degenerate over time. Bad habits develop. Inefficiencies become a part of the system.
What Does Not Enough Information Look Like? Companies that operate on insufficient information get surprised or they disappoint others. On the one hand, insufficient information about events occurring outside of their awareness often leaves them behind the eight ball, so to speak. They wind up reacting to others. They find themselves at the mercy of events.
They are constantly responding to crises rather than being able to focus on an efficient delivery of their game plan. (See for those plagued by chronic crises.) link
People and organizations are never as good when they are passive receptors of what comes, as when they are working their will on their environments. People and companies that don’t see themselves accurately have a tough time correcting mistakes or responding effectively to changes.
These companies repeatedly make the same mistakes, or a fix in one step of the process leads to shortfalls somewhere else. The same problems resurfacing repeatedly on the agenda at staff meetings is also an indicator that there is insufficient information for the company to correct issues.
So What? Operating with insufficient information in the information age is a frightening position in which to find yourself. You’ve got to develop better eyes and ears. You can’t deal with or improve the things that never appear on your radar, or that only appear as an indefinable blip.
Remedying Inaccurate Information – Action Steps
Steps To Take:
- Define and implement a strategy for gathering intelligence relevant to your broad market niche
- Research and deploy scenario planning regarding the business idea in multiple possible futures
- Create opportunities to enable your people to talk to each other about the work and about their inter-connectedness for creating value.
- Create opportunities for your people to talk to your customers, as partners in delivering on your brand promise
- Assign at least one executive, besides the CEO, to maintain a vigilant external focus on the company’s larger value chain.