Jonathan B. Spira's Blog: Overload Stories, page 23
June 19, 2011
Information Overload Authors To Discuss Their Books On June 27
On June 27, I'll be joined by four other authors who have written books focused (in one way or another) on the problem of Information Overload.
The event will take place on the Web at 11 a.m. EDT (8 a.m. PDT, 4 p.m. CET). Joining me will be Dave Crenshaw (author of The Myth of Multitasking), Daniel Forrester (author of Consider), Maggie Jackson (author of Distracted), and William Powers (author of Hamlet's BlackBerry).
You can register as my guest at iorgauthors.eventbrite.com. Each author (including myself) will two questions – why he or she wrote the book, and the issues and solutions that are most significant.
The five of us have quite a bit in common including our interest in addressing Information Overload and our wish to draw more attention to this scourge. (An interesting tidbit is that each author interviewed me about my research in the course of writing his or her book.)
I'm excited about the discussion and I think that the insights that will come out of the event will be extremely thought provoking.
The event is being hosted by the Information Overload Research Group (IORG) and I hope you will be able to attend.
June 16, 2011
Guest column: E-mail Overload 101
Information Overload isn't just a scourge for the business sector. 
Its effects can also be felt in academia, where both students and professors struggle to manage a rising tide of information. While this problem has many facets, in this article I will focus on Information Overload as it manifests itself in the relationship between students and teachers.
E-mail has become ubiquitous on college campuses, and some of the effects of its widespread use are surprising. It is now, for better or worse, many students' preferred form of communication with professors. On the one hand, this gives some students an opportunity to communicate with professors when they otherwise wouldn't have done so, either because the student can't meet with the teacher during office hours or, perhaps, because he or she is too intimidated to ask the professor in person.
On the other hand, just as in the business world, students are much more likely to send e-mail without thinking about its clarity, the appropriateness of its content, or its importance. The result, for many professors, is a veritable e-mail avalanche. The barrage reaches a crescendo around finals week, when many students drop drafts of papers into a teacher's inbox all at the same time and expect a quick turnaround, not taking into consideration that they and their peers have likely overloaded the professor to the point of incapacitation.
The problem got so bad by 2006, the year I entered college, that the New York Times took notice of it in "To: Professor@University.edu Subject: Why It's All About Me." Jonathan Glater wrote in that piece about professors who receive e-mail that is inappropriate, irrelevant, or rude. Many professors reported being asked for information that was already in the syllabus, or receiving emotional tirades about test scores. A later Inside Higher Ed article quoted a professor who receives over 100 e-mail messages a day, many from students. Some professors have formulated rules of "netiquette" to discourage students from sending so much e-mail.
Even when their e-mail is perfectly appropriate, students expect that professors will answer promptly, but this rarely happens. I confess that as a student, the promptness of a professor's e-mail response did influence my opinion of him or her to a small degree. As Glater reported, student e-mail (and the expectations that underlie it) can put tremendous pressure on junior faculty who know that their tenure prospects rest in part on student evaluations, which are much more widespread today than they were even a few years ago.
But for many students, the opinion of Athan Papailiou, a student quoted in the Inside Higher Ed article, is representative. He said that he "understands the frustration of reading endless e-mails, but answering questions is an integral part of teaching." This was certainly my thought until I spoke to my father, who happens to be a professor. He wondered why I felt professors had an obligation to even answer all of my e-mail, much less do so promptly. I was (momentarily) speechless; the expectation was so deeply ingrained that it had never been called before the tribunal of my conscience. It was an eye-opener.
After I complete my graduate studies, I will be on the other side of the divide between student and professor. Just as my former instructors, I will likely face an overloaded inbox and expectant e-mail correspondents. I can only hope that those waiting for e-mail replies from me will take a moment, as we all should, and consider how we all suffer from Information Overload.
Benjamin Rossi is an analyst at Basex.
June 14, 2011
Waiting for a plane-ride is not a sustainable solution
If I weren't on a flight just now, would I have given myself enough time to think through the scenarios?It's increasingly difficult for me to find an hour free of interruption. I've been reading, writing, and coaching on time management for years—you'd think I'd have overcome this challenge for myself. But as I find myself with greater responsibilities and more people depending on me, it's come to this—flights and trains, especially those without internet, are my best opportunities for a true lack of interruptions.
There's a difference between productivity and a true lack of interruptions. Productivity is getting in "the zone" where words flow, and tasks seem to complete themselves. A true lack of interruptions is a context for productivity to thrive, as it offers room to let things settle, for ideas to develop, for critical thinking.
Any real solution to workplace overload needs to create opportunties for true lack of interruptions, for that time to not only complete tasks, but to complete them thoughtfully and effectively.
I realize that even with all my tips and tricks for productivity, I've lately put my team first and been in a bit more of a reactive state, rather than setting my own agenda. That has to change—waiting for another flight without WiFi is not a sustainable solution.
Taking more advantage of my own product, Rescue Time, and the Email Game will be helpful. Saying no to more opportunities will be essential. I don't blame information overload, but the responsibilities I've taken on for myself. All this is running through my head right now.
But for now, I'm going to take advantage of another two hours free from interruptions. So go ahead, buy yourself a plane ticket, or use this as motiviation to decide what to cut or how to free yourself from interruptions. You'll not only be productive, but a more thoughtful and effective person.
June 13, 2011
June 10, 2011
My Time For Thought And Reflection
I'm an executive at a human resources consulting firm and, just as the author of Overload! writes, there is very little time for thought and reflection left in the day (I think he references a 5% figure).
Sometimes I wonder if I even have the 5% I should add.
I found that my only time for thought and reflection – a time where I could think about projects and write down my thoughts – was on Sundays. About a year ago, I started to not only write down my thoughts but send out e-mails on various topics to my colleagues and the consultants who report to me. Little did I know that they would feel an obligation to work on Sundays also and address my notes. A few colleagues mentioned this "problem" to me.
What I ended up doing was continuing my pattern of Sunday thinking and reflecting – but I made it clear to everyone why I was doing this on Sunday and that they were not expected to be working at the same time I was nor should they feel pressure to respond immediately to my missives.
Churchill Club
Churchilll Club
Silicon Valley, CA
July 27, 2011
8:30 A.M.
Details to be announced
The Churchill Club is Silicon Valley's premier business and technology forum. The 6,500-member, nonprofit organization has built a reputation for dynamic, in-the-news programs featuring Silicon Valley CEOs, up-and-coming executives and national business leaders. The events regularly draw more than 400 attendees and give members the opportunity to network with the best of Silicon Valley.
June 9, 2011
Can You Hear Me Now?
Much of the time, we look at distractions and interruptions in the workplace and think "e-mail" or "instant message."
What did you say again?
However, an often overlooked source of distractions is the issue of audio quality during phone conversations. Some level of interference is usually a given on a phone call, but these small interruptions and distractions can, and do, add up.
On a one-on-one phone call, a bad connection can often be fixed in a time-tested manner, (hang up and try again, hoping for a better connection), however, those suffering on a conference call can't solve the problem as easily.
On a group call, a variety of problems may present themselves. Many stem from poor caller etiquette. Examples include not using mute when coughing or using a speakerphone with high background noise. Other problems depend on the type of phone being used. Mobile phones are frequently (but not always) less clear compared to a landline phone, and everyone is familiar with the robot-like voice distortion that occurs when a VoIP connection slows down.
While knowledge workers are becoming increasingly reliant on advanced communications tools, verbal communication remains the motor of the knowledge economy in many respects.
In today's global economy, given the vast distances that separate many knowledge workers, such verbal interactions more often than not occur via the telephone.
The upside of this is that knowledge workers from all over the world can join in a conference call without having to travel from their respective offices. The downside however, is that the subtle non-verbal cues that we rely on for effective communication are lost. Physical gestures, facial expressions, eye movements, and many other non-verbal actions reinforce, emphasize, and even contradict what a speaker is saying. These vital clues that set context and provide a wealth of supplemental information to the listener are missing from a telephone conversation.
Because of the loss of these important aspects of the verbal interaction, the remaining information, conveyed by voice, is all the more critical. As a result, any disruption to the audio quality of a call can have a significant impact on the participants. Missed information can lead to costly errors, muddled responses to questions require time-consuming repetition and clarification, and a static-filled connection results in frustration and stress for call participants as they strain to follow the conversation.
What are your experiences and thoughts on this issue? Post your comments and thoughts here.
–Jonathan B. Spira is CEO and Chief Analyst at Basex and author of Overload! How Too Much Information Is Hazardous To Your Organization. Cody Burke, a senior analyst at Basex , contributed to this article.
June 2, 2011
Reading The News: The Future Of The Newspaper
In Overload!, I examine how my newspaper reading habits have changed over the past decade.
Is this the Gazette's complete iPad edition?
The first real newspaper (Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien) was published in 1605 in Strasbourg, France, and, until recently, the primary means of conveying news to the world was indeed the newspaper.
Newspapers hit the Web in earnest in the 1990s but they were in many respects limited by the limitations of the Web browser in terms of formatting and that one had to be sitting in front of a computer to read them.
With the advent of the Kindle eBook reader and Apple iPad, how we get our newspaper has started to change.
I'll focus first on the iPad experience since I've had the opportunity to study this in greater depth.
A daily newspaper or two for me was a daily habit since grammar school. Until recently, I always had both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal delivered to my front door. I first stopped the New York Times a little less than three years ago. I didn't do it lightly, indeed I reasoned (with myself) that I was saving paper as most of the newspaper was going "unread" because the articles I was interested in I had already accessed online.
In designing their respective iPad interfaces, both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal started with a tabula rasa. The Wall Street Journal chose to go with iPad conventions in terms of the use of gestures. As a result, the experience the reader gets isn't simply replicating the look and feel of the print paper, but in my opinion the interface is actually an improvement.
A Journal reader on the iPad can get the day's paper or the most up-to-date news and swipe from article to article. The look and feel resembles the print edition but the images are far superior. Thanks to its intelligent use of gestures and scrolling, I find reading the Journal on the iPad more enjoyable and far more informative than reading the paper version. I can swipe between articles and sections. I also can close the article and return to the both front page of the "paper" or of each section by pinching the screen. And finally, I can also switch to the European or Asian edition with two taps, a feat that is not possible with the paper version.
On the other hand, I find that reading New York Times via its iPad app is an exercise in frustration thanks to a poor user interface that leaves me constantly wishing I had the actual paper in front of me. Ironically, one of the people sharing the stage with Steve Jobs at the launch of the iPad was Martin Nisenholtz, the head of the Times' digital business unit. Nisenholtz even demoed an early version of the Times' iPad app at the launch but the proof is in the pudding, so to speak. Unfortunately, the Times' app was more hype than substance.
Apple iPad users have given the Times' app three out of five stars and more people (45.3%) gave it one star – "hated it" than any other. (This is a good rating compared to the Times' iPhone app, which only garnered two stars. 65.3% of users who rated it gave it one star.)
Users of the Wall Street Journal app have given it a five-star rating ("it's great") and 65.4% users gave it five stars.
Apparently, the Times is having trouble abiding by its motto "All the news that's fit to print" when it comes to the iPad. Not only does it seem as if a lot of news is missing in the iPad edition, but it's not possible to go back to past editions (unlike the Wall Street Journal, which allows the reader to go back seven days).
A few days ago, the Times released version 2.0.7, which introduced article-to-article swipe. This is a small improvement although navigation is hindered since there is still no "main" page. What the Times considers to be the main page is what the editors have determined to be "Top News" stories. Today, there were 11. It's also not possible to swipe from section to section (e.g. from Business Day to Technology). Switching sections requires clicking on the menu bar and then making a selection.
A significant problem with both apps is that, unlike on the Web, there is no search function, making it virtually impossible to find something one is looking for (of course, print newspapers lack search functionality as well but the newspapers' Web sites do incorporate it, although these implementations are far from perfect).
The newfound popularity of tablet computers could mean a renaissance for newspapers – if the newspapers seize the opportunity and provide functionality that exceeds both the paper and Web experiences. Until that happens, however, you'll find me bypassing the New York Times in favor of newspapers that see fit to print all the news with an app to match.
Jonathan B. Spira is CEO and Chief Analyst at Basex and author of Overload! How Too Much Information Is Hazardous To Your Organization
May 31, 2011
Reply To All Strikes Again…
I was at a conference sitting at a table full of ICE agents who were all unable to access e-mail on their Blackberries because someone had sent out one of those useless group messages. Then someone else asked to be removed from the group, and hit reply to all… Before long there were hundreds of e-mails clogging up the system.
May 26, 2011
Replying To All
The problem that occurs when knowledge workers click the "reply to all" button entered the big leagues earlier this year when a Bridgestone commercial during the Superbowl showed a person freaking out when a co-worker told him he hit reply to all.
Sorry, everyone, I didn't mean to hit reply to all on my typewriter
In my new book, Overload! How Too Much Information is Hazardous To Your Organization, I discuss the reaction to one company's attempt to rein in the problem. Nielsen, a global concern whose businesses range from television and other media measurement to business publications, told its employees that the company would eliminate reply to all functionality in their company's e-mail client.
The truth is that Nielsen didn't eliminate the functionality, just the button, so workarounds were easy and people continued to use reply to all.
The overuse of the reply to all function in e-mail is, without question, a huge source of e-mail overload in almost every organization. But there are still many instances where its use is not only warranted but helpful, including e-mail messages where only a few people are copied and a reply to all is warranted.
As I note in the book, Nathan Zeldes, president of IORG and former director of information overload reduction strategies at Intel, had a far more prosaic recommendation for Nielsen and others: move the position of reply to all on the toolbar away from the reply button, making people less likely to click it inadvertently. My advice is along similar lines: I would have recommended that Nielsen modify the e-mail client to notify the sender if he were about to send to more than five people and ask if he wished to continue.
Replying to all can in fact endanger national security. Another scenario I present in the book was told to me by Col. Peter Marksteiner of the United States Air Force. During the Air Force Cyber Symposium at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama in July 2008, where several hundred experts including ranking military officers were focusing on the threat hackers and terrorists in far-off lands such as China and Russia might pose. A somewhat unsophisticated e-mail user forwarded a note about what the sender referred to as "the funnest (sic) card/dice game" to multiple respondents. The message ended up being sent to two fairly large e-mail group lists and the ensuing barrage of "take me off your list" replies – with many users hitting reply to all – shut down the e-mail server supporting two bases, including the one that was hosting the cyber conference.
Jonathan B. Spira is CEO and Chief Analyst at Basex and author of Overload! How Too Much Information Is Hazardous To Your Organization
