Keeping Up with Information

Too much information. If that’s driving you insane, then you should know there are ways to focus and filter for information success.

The information deluge is real, says Dr. Tracy Brower.

“From news media and social media to information from friends, family and work, there is never an absence of opinions or material to consume,” she wrote recently for Forbes. “It can be hard to tune in without becoming overwhelmed.”

In the workplace, indeed, the information flood has many looking for ways to keep from drowning. In 2020, CCC partnered with analyst firm Outsell, Inc., on an information seeking and consumption study to learn how and how much copyrighted content is reused and shared in the workplace.

From 2016 to 2020, the amount of work-related content sharing tripled. Executives shared content almost 25 times every week, usually with at least a dozen colleagues at a time. And when working at home, the frequency of content sharing rose by more than one-third.

A sociologist and author of two books exploring happiness, fulfillment, and work life, Dr. Brower says research points to ways we can all be more selective about how we consume information. She also urges us to push out of comfort zones to where innovation is found – at the edges.

“I love this idea of the adjacent possible,” she tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “The adjacent possible is the thing that might be different than what we know but related to what we already know.

“So when we push to the edges of our knowledge, we learn new things. Maybe I love my job in finance, and I realize that it has a real connection to talent and talent forecasting and how we compensate people. So I grow into an HR role, for example.”