The Reality of Information Overload

I know I’m not alone with this situation – constant email, text, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIN alerts, multiple notices from groups I want to stay connected with, calls on the business line while my cell phone is ringing, and the unscheduled "visit" from a co-worker who just needs a minute of my time. Wow! No wonder I’m having a hard time getting things done! We all have a lot of information coming at us. How do we make sense of it in order to not miss things we should know or do? The technology age has shackled us. Do we have the skills to free ourselves?

According to a recent survey, employees and employers are worried about the impacts of information overload on productivity, morale, and work quality. We’ve modified our behaviors to embrace new technologies and now many of us have trouble controlling our desire to know what’s happening continuously on issues related to work, family and friends, politics, entertainment and business. And even though I don’t like to admit it, I too have to put on an "out of office" message, and sometimes even really do work outside the office, in order to get real work done. The truth be known, my most productive time is on a cross-country flight. Wow, four hours of uninterrupted time! Don’t give me WiFi and please don’t let passengers start using cell phones on planes. This is the best uninterrupted time you can hope for.

One report produced by the Burton Group states that our expectations for responsiveness have increased greatly and individuals now feel an instinctive need to respond immediately, or they are consumed with guilt. They refer to the "CrackBerry effect," and although we might use the term jokingly, both about ourselves and our friends, it’s beginning to look more and more like the truth.

Like many, I’m questioning if technology and our expectations for staying connected have gone too far? Jack Santos, the author of the Burton Group report, wrote that "the cumulative responses from the CIO community to all of this info-insanity is: ‘Stop the world! I need to get off!’"

Looking at our behaviors and the problems we encounter when we try to disconnect from technology for any period of time (say a vacation week) I think it’s reasonable to ask "are our skill sets for emotionally and psychologically managing the volumes of available information in step with the pace of technological advancements?" Jonathan Spira, a researcher who studies worker productivity, has written a book on the topic of information overload, quite perfectly entitled "Overload: How Too Much Information is Hazardous to Your Organization."  According to his research, a worker reading and responding to 100 emails a day can easily occupy one half of the work day! Think about that – how many emails do you respond to in a day? Spira’s research goes further to reveal, "for every 100 people who are unnecessarily copied on an email, eight hours of productivity are lost." So what’s the answer? How do we tame the information overload beast eating up precious hours of productive time for each worker?

Suggestions from The Experts

Spira and others suggest a few "simple" things we can do to change our productivity metrics:

1. Stop sending emails that only say "thanks." I know that on some occasions it is important to acknowledge that "I got it," but make these the exception rather than the rule.
2. Schedule e-mail time two to three times a day for 10 minutes at a time.
3. Discontinue smart phone use, or at least check it only on a predefined schedule rather than at every vibration.
4. Before you hit the "reply all" button – does everyone need to know what you’re about to say? Good question!
5. Turn off email and text alerts (sound and vibration) so you’re not tempted to be distracted from what you are focused on.
6. Learn to block those advertisements that you don’t need to be bothered with in order to cut down on interruptions.
7. Think twice - or maybe three times - before forwarding that chain notice or joke – what a waste of time.
8. Set aside immersion time. –Bill Gates is probably the best at this with his "Think Week" retreat. This time is for getting away from technology and focusing on consuming ideas, books, articles, conversations that will stimulate new ideas without interruptions and distractions.

Tools to Assist

A survey conducted by LexisNexis suggests that businesses aren’t doing enough to help workers manage the information they are exposed to. Workers from each market said they would welcome up-to-date technology and customized tools for managing information, as well as training on best practices and self-discipline. Until better tools are available, consider utilizing available support and time management skills to manage the stress and impact of this phenomenon:

1. Turn on your Out of Office Message so you won’t feel so guilty about not responding as soon as a message hits your mailbox.
2. Use an RSS Reader to organize the most important information you need to access.
3. Stay focused on connecting with the most important information you need to know and don’t worry about the rest.
4. Form "support groups" at work to discuss the problem and to share ideas for disconnection.
5. Practice shutting down cell phones, email, etc. about two hours prior to bedtime in order to give your brain a chance to disengage.
6. Establish an electronic system for filing your emails and attachments to shorten retrieval time.

So What’s Next?

Information overload is not a new problem. According to an article in Harvard Business Review by Ann Blair, in 1255 the Dominican Vincent of Beauvais articulated the key ingredients of the feelings of overload which are still with us today: "the multitude of books, the shortness of time and the slipperiness of memory." Sound familiar? No one doubts the fact that the age of information and knowledge is here. What we need to do is build the skills and disciplines to properly survive it.

When attending a time management workshop you probably learned about time wasters – the people who stop by your office and ask, "do you have a few minutes?" and 30 minutes later you’re still trying to get them out of your cubicle. The colleague that calls and before you can say hello, says "I’ll only keep you for five minutes," but before you know it, an hour has passed. Or, the meeting you’ve been requested to attend that has nothing to do with the work you are currently responsible for. And the list goes on. Well it’s time to add the time wasters of email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. to that group. These are all good tools when properly utilized to add value to our lives, but when they begin to dictate daily priorities, they can turn into the biggest time wasters.

Research continues to demonstrate that our brains are not structured for multi-tasking in a time efficient manner, and in fact, we should try to avoid multi-tasking at all costs. As Mr. Spira’s research concludes, "when it comes to cognitive tasks, our brains aren’t really capable of competently doing more than one thing at a time." The research seems to be clear, "workers distracted by email and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in a marijuana smoker"! (2005 University of London Study). If we can hardly walk and chew gum at the same time, what’s to be done about all these pulls for our attention and engagement with information?

Surprisingly, there appears to be movement away from supporting distractors like email and the like. An August article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that "Companies like PriceWaterhouseCoopers have put out requests urging employees to not email over the weekend, so as to not create a false urgency for action. And the French service company Atos Origin plans to go email free in the next three years to cut down on what it calls ‘information pollution.’ There’s even an effort underway to ‘conquer information overload’ and restore sanity to working professionals. The site InfoVegan is dedicated to information obesity, diets and civic accountability." What’s your organization doing about this problem?

Whether it’s email, social media, YouTube or whatever, informative availability has invaded our homes and work zones. Establishing a work culture that honors "nontechnical" time and values a healthy expectation for a balanced and realistic number of "connected" hours is a good step in the right direction. Helping our employees develop reasonable and practical skills for managing the 24/7/365-paced global environment should be on the priority list of every leader. I would suggest denying access to the technologies is not the answer. In addition to shifting the culture, organizations should begin to offer workshops about the impact of information overload to brain functionality and productivity along with training focused on building new skills to better manage the information produced by the expanding access to technology channels.

What’s your experience with information overload? What’s working for you and your employees, and where are you struggling? Please share your comments below.

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Wanted: Leaders and Creative Thinkers

The March issue of Harvard Business Review contains an insightful article, The New Path to the C-suite by Groysberg, Kelly and MacDonald. Their research focused on seven C-level jobs; the competencies the positions needed in the past, those currently in demand, and to the best of their abilities, the competencies that will be required over the next decade.

The article is very informative, especially as a professional development guide for individuals desiring to move into the C-suite. I also see a lot of relevance in the article for leaders to consider from the perspective of succession planning and leadership development. I totally understand there are times when bringing in new blood, and new ideas, is a better approach than promoting from within. However, let’s not overlook the opportunity to prepare senior leaders already in the C-suite for different responsibilities, as well as developing those managers coming up through the ranks behind them. With the proper combination of situations such as exposure, mentoring, training, and job rotations, your exceptional leaders of the future may be just down the hall.

The New PathThe research confirmed some of what has been previously speculated. There has been a lot of change taking place with regard to C-suite competency requirements over the past ten years. Add to that daily global and technology changes and the result is a continuous redefining of what is needed to operate a successful business, now and in the future. Through their research and interviews conducted by the authors, one thing became clear - the "technical and functional expertise that once was a must to reach the C-suite will take a backseat to leadership skills and a strong grasp of business fundamentals required of leaders in the future."

Groysberg and his team openly state their understanding that different times and different circumstances call for different leadership skills. However, they also acknowledge the impact of the rapidly changing landscape being thrust on leaders today. Issues such as changing workforce demographics, globalization, and technology innovations are driving new trends in the ways we search for talent. The new workplace seeks a blended combination of creativity, thought-leadership and well rounded international business backgrounds.

Where’s HR?The focus of the HBR article is on seven C-suite positions: CIO – Chief Marketing and Sales Officer, CFO, General Counsel, Chief Supply-Chain-Management Officer, Chief Human Resource Officer and CEO. Common across all positions is a theme of increased knowledge and experience with:


• Business acumen and orientation
• Communications
• Collaboration
• Strategic thinking
• Technology savvy
• "Soft" leadership skills, i.e., trust, empathy, professionalism, motivation, ethics, etc.The requirements for Human Resource (HR) leadership are changing just as much as for other disciplines. However, for many reasons which would fill another blog, HR doesn’t have as established a presence in the C-suite as a position such as the Chief Information Officer (CIO). In the overview of the research on the Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO) position, Groysberg includes a New York Times quote from Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, "The discipline I believe so strongly in is HR, and it’s the last discipline that gets funded. Marketing, manufacturing – all these things are important. But more often than not, the head of HR does not have a seat at the table. Big mistake." I agree, it’s a big mistake; especially when we look at the "people-related" changes that are integrated in the new requirements for C-suite players:


• Planning for and implementing workplace flexibilities and a variety of work structure options
• Anticipating and embracing intergenerational work style issues
• Analyzing and preparing for the impact of cultural differences and shifting demographics
• Focusing on continuous needs to help prepare and move people through change
• Expanding confidence and abilities to work with people at all levels of the organization, including C’s and the BoardIf organizations don’t take the appropriate steps to expand the experiences of their HR Managers and VP’s, I believe we will create an imbalance and run the risk that the CHRO role could tilt too far in the direction of business knowledge and lose the eye on the importance of motivation, flexibilities and development. Without the right balance of competency requirements, it’s easy to foresee the creation of a skill set gap for managing talent assessment, recruitment, engagement and retention.

I think this is an exciting time for HR. For those that are already in the profession, those in academia that teach and develop HR professionals, and organizations that invest in and promote high potentials that demonstrate the drive, interest and passion for expanding their horizons.

As the article mentions, we’ve come a long way in getting progressive organizations to see the value of HR. It’s great to identify and hire ambitious, passionate business leaders who understand the dynamics of people, as well as the criticality of matching workforce skills and training with the jobs of the future. However, for those individuals, as well as others who are just learning how to combine their technical knowledge with the human side of business there’s a place for "on-the-job" trainings that come in the form of overseas assignments, job shadowing, exposure to board meetings, and observing innovative strategic planning efforts. And really, these types of experiential learnings would be great not only for the CHRO, but for all the employees in the Succession Plan that need to expand their knowledge of company-specific issues to help expand their business orientation horizons.

So What’s Next?The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) continues to have a finger on the pulse of changing competencies required of CHRO’s. SHRM collaborates with business and academic communities to stay current in the conversation about human resource leadership competencies. In fact, the organization has also rolled out a SHRM-approved HR college curriculum to better address future skill sets for the up and coming HR/business leader. SHRM continues to partner with thought-leaders in every aspect of human capital and business management to expand research, training, and learning events to keep pace with determining the right mix of responsibilities and training as this dynamic role evolves.

The HBR article pointed to the trend that non-HR executives with backgrounds in operations, marketing and corporate law are more frequently being tapped for CHRO positions and they also acknowledged that this tendency is not without problems. They specifically cite that legal professionals are often being selected for the CHRO position as the regulatory environment has become so complex. However, tracking the successes and challenges of this skill set selection indicates that often there is more time spent focusing on regulations and compensation issues so that other responsibilities suffer.

I recognize that the bar is being raised on all jobs, not just HR. Businesses recovering from the recession of the past three years can not be successful doing the same things, the same ways they did them before the recession. And with that said we all know that what we’ll be doing in five years and within the next decade will be remarkably different than what we’re doing in 2011. It’s a rapid-change environment in which we live and work. Every business needs to attract, develop and retain the top talent to best manage this changing marketplace, and that includes the C-suite.

So why not link the Succession Plan and future workforce needs with professional development and retention efforts? What would training and development programs look like if we were developing employees for the C-suite of the future? How could we utilize mentors to transfer knowledge, design job shadowing to heighten the awareness of the criticality of strong leadership and soft skills and devise on-the-job experiential experiences to motivate and retain employees, while building a pipeline of future talent?

Do you agree that the C-suite needs to come together to collaborate about how to prepare the next generation of internal and external candidates? What role do you see HR playing in this conversation? What ideas are you considering or implementing to address this issue? What successes have you seen and what challenges are you still trying to figure out? I look forward to hearing from you. Please comment in the box below.

Future Business Leaders Need to Think Outside the Box