Just Give Me the Facts
Posted On: 2007-01-11
But are they relevant?
There is no doubt that we live in an age of information. Back in my grandparents day they got the latest news from newspapers, the radio, and word of mouth. They didn't have television and they certainly didn't have the Internet so the amount of information they were able to obtain was limited and often the 'latest' information was way out of date by the time they received it.
My grandparents lived in a small country town but even if they had lived in the city they would have faced the same situation. The amount of news and information they would have received would have been limited and often out of date. Yet they survived and prospered and, in many ways, they were much more careful with the information they received than we are today.
Despite the fact that the amount of false information they received and the amount of spin that might have been put on that information was far less than it is today, they tended to spend time analyzing the information they received.
Of course, today things are much different. We have current information from all over the world right here at our fingertips. We're not just limited to radio broadcasts and newspapers like our grandparents were; we can access information about everything almost as it happens.
And if we're looking for data and information about subjects that aren't quite so current then we have access to that too. But are we really any better off than our grandparents were?
It seems that rather than being better off we're probably worse off than our grandparents. They were able to access information that was important and relevant to them and that information was almost always useful and reliable. Today we're not so lucky and the overwhelming flood of information that we have access to is not of the same quality that it was 50 or 60 years ago.
Useless Information
A recent survey of over 1,000 middle-level executives across the United States and the United Kingdom found that around 53% of them were sure that the information they received was of absolutely no use to them at all. Even when there is 'good' information out there many of them felt that actually finding it was almost impossible.
Sadly those surveyed don't believe that the situation is going to get any better in the future either. Many believe that the situation will only go on getting worse.
Plain wrong information
When we go searching for some information we almost invariably turn to the Internet. We visit websites, we look up Wikipedia, we haunt message boards and we read blogs but how do we know if the information we are gleaning from those sources is correct?
How do we know that we can take that information at face value? Do we even stop to consider why the person who has written what we are looking at has provided that information?
Sometimes people just want to share information out of the goodness of the heart. They like to be helpful and support their fellow human beings but that doesn't mean that the information they are sharing is correct.
Sometimes people share information so that they can gain some recognition. Perhaps they are looking at ways of developing their4 careers by posting information on their blogs. I know of a couple of well-known bloggers who are blogging with a view to being asked to write books in the future but I also know that some of the information that at least one of them passes on to his readers is not always right, correct or 'good'.
Sometimes people share information because they want to be seen as important and it gives their ego a boost when readers thank them for the information they pass on. Others may even have a slightly hidden agenda when they pass on information.
Today I was reading on a blog about how the staff members of a small business communicated with each other and keep up to speed on the projects that each is working on. The blogger lamented that they were using a bunch of white boards to keep everyone notified of what was happening when they would much rather be using some software.
One guy commented that they shouldn't ditch the whiteboards because whiteboards worked best while another commented that there was a great piece of software they could use and from their experience it was extremely useful.
So who was correct? Did the whiteboard guy really have any experience or was he just trying to be noticed in a forum that was important to him. Did the guy who suggested the software have some hidden agenda about that software?
You won't really know the answers to those questions unless you test them but if you make a decision based on those comments alone you may be wasting your money and wasting valuable time.
What's the motivation?
Finally, with some subjects there's another important question you need to ask yourself. Is the person who is giving the advice you are reading telling you the whole story? Are they giving you all the facts or are they just telling you enough to make them look good?
I'll be up front with you right now, I don't always tell you everything I know. I don't always tell you the whole story for two reasons; the first is that I don't necessarily want to give away an advantage that I may have gained from my own research and hard work.
Secondly what works for me may not work for you and so it's often best if I point you along a path but leave you to walk it yourself. I might give you the directions to get you started but you will need to do some work yourself so that you can make the decisions that are right for your business.
Others are not quite so obvious as that and some of the advice that you will receive on message boards and forums is only half the story. Unless you are prepared to critically analyze that information and see where it might lead then you're probably wasting your time following that information at all.
So hopefully I've just challenged to be more critical about the information you come across as you try to develop your business. There is no doubt that much of the relevant information is out there but it's up to you to find it and identify it as being what you need.