Derek Dean and Caroline Webb wrote an article on the McKinsley Quarterly website, which looks at problems knowledge workers face. They propose the always on, multitasking work environments are killing productivity, dampening creativity, and making us unhappy, the article also outlines various approaches to handle this information overload.

Read the full article at http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Recovering_from_information_overload_2735
In my opinion, information overload happens because it can. We have given everyone more, better tools with which to communicate, however when everyone is talking, who is listening, who is hearing what is really going on?

To use an analogy, it’s a bit like cars and roads—the more cars we have the busier the roads get, and travel then takes longer and is more frustrating!

Unfortunately, email is probably the biggest culprit in all of this, but I think that this is more of a symptom rather than a cause in itself.

If staff within organisations do not have the right information at the right time, with the right tools to act on it (i.e. focus) then they switch to multi-task mode, retrieving, searching, and re-organising information. Equally, in the absence of knowing just who needs to be involved, information is spewed around the organisation in “blunderbus” mode, causing all sorts of distractions and “information casualties” within the organization.

For me, I believe that there are emergent initiatives and technologies which are growing to address this challenge, such as “Adaptive Case Management” or “Dynamic Case Management” which enable organisations to apply contextualised process to real business needs. By switching key business tasks into such platforms, we eliminate sources of unwanted email, freeing up time at each level of the organisation, including senior executives who seek to get their heads above the noise, and to listen for what’s really important to the organisation.

So don’t take it as a fait accompli, use the right technology, in the right way and enable everyone to be more effective and efficient.