Last week I lectured on Information Overload at a seminar for small business entrepreneurs. This is a very diverse, lively and interesting population segment, brimming with energy and originality. I had an interesting time talking to people making a living from areas as different as marriage (and, alas, divorce) counseling, organic food production, web site development, optometry, software coding and interior design. These people were young and old, male and female, technically trained or not; but they had one thing in common: all were victims of massive Information Overload.
Which is strange, in a way: you’d think someone running a small home-based business would be less affected than a corporate cube dweller. And yet there they were, expressing the same struggles and losing battles against overflowing Inboxes as any hi-tech engineer or manager.
And yet, there are subtle differences, so I tried to understand and address in my lecture the specific aspects of the problem in a small or home business setting. Below I list what I came up with, and I seek your input to extend or modify this list:
- In an enterprise, where most email is internal, you have access to – and control of – both senders and recipients, so you can set expectations for both, and train the senders to write effective emails. This is important because by dealing with a sender you can cure the problem at the source. In a small business you don’t have any control of the people who send you email, all you can do is cope better with the symptoms they generate.
- Small businesspeople face serious issues with Time Management, which these days is closely linked to Email and the Tasks it brings with it. The greater flexibility they enjoy comes with greater opportunities for losing track of time.
- In addition to Email Overload, these workers perceive a serious problem with how to stay professionally updated without spending all day at it. Of course we all seek knowledge online, but in a company there is the supporting framework of a formal training curriculum; at home you’re on your own, and the endless content of the blogosphere, just a mouse click away, is hard to resist.
- Some Small Businesses actually suffer from Spam, I was surprised to learn. This is because they don’t have the protection afforded corporate users by the filters installed at the gateway by an IT group, and many lack the knowledge to install the filtering themselves.
- Unlike corporate knowledge workers, who have access to team-wide knowledge stores, in a SMB you need to manage, file and retrieve all your information locally and alone. You don’t have anyone managing SharePoint repositories you can use, after all.
So – do you run a small business? Have I missed anything you can add to this list? Leave a comment to share!
Last week I lectured on Information Overload at a seminar for small business entrepreneurs. This is a very diverse, lively and interesting population segment, brimming with energy and originality. I had an interesting time talking to people making a living from areas as different as marriage (and, alas, divorce) counseling, organic food production, web site development, optometry, software coding and interior design. These people were young and old, male and female, technically trained or not; but they had one thing in common: all were victims of massive Information Overload.
Which is strange, in a way: you’d think someone running a small home-based business would be less affected than a corporate cube dweller. And yet there they were, expressing the same struggles and losing battles against overflowing Inboxes as any hi-tech engineer or manager.
And yet, there are subtle differences, so I tried to understand address in my lecture the specific aspects of the problem in a small or home business setting. Below I list what I came up with, and I seek your input to extend or modify this list:
I have my own small consulting firm, and I think that the demands on an SMB are less onerous than those in a large firm. Small business owners don’t have bosses, and don’t have to deal with multiple departments/divisions expecting immediate responses. Notwithstanding your point about being able to “cure the problem at the source,” I don’t know of any large companies (save perhaps Intel!) that really enables and encourages individuals and departments to set agreements about the appropriate use of communication technology.
Moreover, in my experience, it’s much easier for a small business owner to learn that 99% of the time, the sender of an email is not looking for an immediate response, and so they can easily free themselves from the psychological burden of trying to keep up with all communication. In a strange way, it’s easier to tell your customer that you’ll get back to them in 2 hours than it is to tell your boss.
Actually t isn’t only Intel, Dan… I know of a few others. But they are indeed a small minority… 🙁
Glad to hear that Intel isn’t the only firm doing it. But it does raise the question: when the evidence is so clear that the current mode of working is ineffective, why don’t more companies drive change from the top?
Ah yes, Dan… the big question. This one deserves a post of its own, one of these days!