Content written by Rodney Alsup and published by the MBA News Digest.

Data rich, information poor, and knowledge deficient describes many B-School decision-makers. In other words, these decision-makers have the data they need but they are not converting it to the information and knowledge they need to improve program performance. One explanation for this data conversion failure is information blindness.

What Causes Information Blindness?

One semester just ended, and another is starting. In the last few weeks or months, you received: your copy of the Program Roadmap & Market Trends Report (PRMTR) from Percept Research, your copy of Understanding the Implications of the Digital Generation on Business Education (Phase 3) from EMBAC, and all the semester end course and feedback reports that are generated. Oh, and you attended EMBAC’s annual conference, the Part-time MBA annual conference, and the MBA Roundtable’s annual symposium. So, what did you do with all of this data and information that was made available to you from these sources? Did you convert it to knowledge, actionable decisions, or goals? Or did you file it all for future consideration in the “I’ll get around to it file” we all have? If the only action you took was to leave the reports and conference notes in a stack, then you may suffer from information blindness.

What is Information Blindness?

Charles Duhigg, author of Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity devotes an entire chapter to information blindness. He refers to information blindness as the inability of a decision-maker to take advantage of data as it becomes available or more plentiful. A common belief is that decision quality generally gets better as we receive more relevant information. But, our brains reach a breaking point when the data becomes too much. He says we, “Start ignoring options or making bad choices or stop interacting with the information completely.” We may even put it in a drawer (physical or mental) and never look at it again.

What Can You Do to Avoid Information Blindness?

Overcoming information blindness is simple, but not done easily. Data and information only becomes useful when we can convert it to knowledge that helps with decision-making. When presented with a large quantity of information such as a 75-100-page report or our notes from a conference, Duhigg suggests that “our brains pivot to a more binary decision: Do I try to make sense of all this information or just stick everything in my drawer and ignore it?” To avoid these binary decisions, slow down and think, don’t jump into the report or the conference notes and make decisions.

Slowing down and engaging with the data is the challenge. One approach for meeting this challenge is to adopt a self-designed way of engaging with the reports you receive. Something as simple as answering a prescribed series of questions or following a checklist will work. Starting out, each question or checklist item should force you to do something that you would not ordinarily do when you receive a new report.

I recommend that you design your own set of questions or checklist. But, for those of you that would like a jumpstart, you can download a checklist I created by clicking here.

Join the Conversation!

Question: Do you have a set of questions or checklist that help you get the most out of the reports you receive? Do you have suggestions for modifying my checklist? Click here to share your response or email me at RGAlsup@MBANewsDigest.com if you prefer to respond without sharing.

Rodney

Subscribers Click Here to View More