An unusual lecture subject

Yesterday I gave a somewhat unusual invited lecture at the Innovation as Culture conference in Tel Aviv. The lecture was about Information Overload, something I speak about often, but in this case I was asked to consider it from an Innovation point of view. After some thought I realized there were a number of points of congruence between these two subjects: after all, innovation requires thinking, and information overload is a major barrier to deep, focused thought. On the other hand, many solutions to information overload are extremely innovative. That’s two areas to explore already – and they seem complementary: IO kills innovation, and innovation comes to the rescue to kill IO.

A vicious circle (and a bear)

And then I realized that there’s more to it.

Consider:

• Information overload in the workplace kills innovation and the ability to think.
• Innovative companies make solutions to fix information overload in the workplace.
• Lack of innovation and thought bandwidth causes the workplace to resist adopting the innovative solutions, so IO continues to rule.
• Go to bullet 1.

Indeed, we have here a vicious circle. This reminds me of Winnie the Pooh. Milne’s immortal book begins:

Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it.

The endless stream of interruptions that is the worst part of information overload is quite analogous to the bumping in this passage; and it is what prevents many of us from thinking of new, better ways to deal with information and communication.

How to solve this problem

What is required is for someone to break the circle and get a solution program going. Unfortunately, this is a difficult task. I’ve noticed that organizations that call me to help them with IO usually do so after their CEO takes the decision to act; indeed, it may take that level of power to break an ingrained problem of such magnitude.

On the other hand, in some cases people further down the power structure – change agents, such as I was at Intel, and such as I see at other companies from time to time – can take the lead on triggering the change.

So how about you? Shouldn’t you stop bumping down the stairs like a toy bear?