The Source for Communicators

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September 12th, 2007 Wise words on reducing information overload

To prepare for the forthcoming issue of Strategic Communication Management, I sent an email to the Editorial Board – a group of 14 senior and respected communication professionals from around the world – to get their thoughts on the cause and cure of dreaded information overload.

Their responses provide a valuable starting point for communicators struggling to clarify their role in the war against too much information. Here's some wise words from Per Zetterquist, a consultant with Occurro Strategy & Communication in Sweden:

Don't overcomplicate
Information overload is to a large degree the result of overcomplicating things. I think the main challenge for communicators is to take a fight for “simplicity”. This is not an easy thing when you meet with CEOs or engineers. They like to think they do complicated and smart things. Can we find anyone who has been successful in simplifying? I read Jack Trout’s book The Power of Simplicity some years ago. Very inspiring.

Relevance first, technnology second
Technology is a wonderful thing and there are certainly interesting things to tell and learn about “pull” and “push”. But this will always be second to relevance. How can we help practitioners think more in terms of “how do I make this relevant for my audience?” rather than spending time on distribution matters? Push or pull makes no difference if you don’t have something that people think is important and relevant for them to tell.

Apply a solid knowledge of the business
It’s just too easy to see the communicator as a quantity gate-keeper function when you talk about “reducing information overload”. My experience is that the successful communicator is a person who can qualify data and judge what is relevant or not from a solid knowledge about the business, market environment and the company strategy. With this in mind I would like to see a piece in SCM arguing for less of “communication expertise” and more of “full business understanding” for the practitioner who wants to make a difference in reducing information overload and tailoring messages.

There'll be more coverage of the debate in the next issue of SCM.

See you next week.

Mandy Thatcher
Editor
mandy.thatcher@melcrum.com

P.S. On the Melcrum Podcast: interviews with Ronald Van der Molen from Canon Europe, and a preview from Michael Kiess, Communications Manager at IBM, of his forthcoming presentation at Melcrum's Social Media Forum Europe.