The Third Eye: Are you information savvy?

New Delhi: In today's world success is largely determined by the ability to make knowledge-based decisions -- in both personal and professional spheres.

Knowledge helps one realise what should be done and what one should not do.

This enables one to be discrete at work, to have smooth interactions not only with seniors but also with colleagues, and to make meaningful contributions to organizational improvement.

This is, in fact, a management skill from which it can be inferred that good management also depends on competent handling of information—external or internal—as well as of the people one is dealing with.

Even a family is like a small organisational unit and its head has to have the qualities of a good manager while bringing up children as a parent and tackling other family issues.

Innocence is bliss no more and one has to be reasonably aware of the environment as it exists in the neighbourhood and also in the wider world, in the interest of one's safety and well-being.

One should be able to 'observe' what one sees, 'absorb' what one observes, and 'analyse' what one absorbs for any learning that could be deduced from it.

The use of 'intelligence' -- which is a product of 'information' -- contributes to what can be termed as smart living.

Being 'smart' by definition is the ability to achieve better results or higher productivity out of the given resources of money, human assistance, and time.

Information can be defined as "an intelligible fact or data that tells you what you did not already know".

It is clear that being better informed than somebody else can become a matter of competitive advantage in a given situation where that particular information is relevant.

Knowledge of what happened in the past or what was happening in the present adds to one's knowledge but an idea of what lay ahead -- often derived from an analysis of this knowledge -- can become the ultimate guarantor of success.

Information on a future happening is called intelligence and it can be sourced directly or deduced through a competent analysis of what was already in the public domain.

By definition, intelligence is the specially procured information of proven reliability that gives you a peep into the future. Information of intelligence value is important not only in the context of national security but in day-to-day life as well -- for personal security and business advancement -- since it enables you to visualise both opportunities and risks lying ahead.

Intelligence today is an important determinant of corporate and managerial success.

Major businesses invest in establishing intelligence units to analyse the market environment and study the competitors.

Being well-informed means having the right information at the right time and having the information that makes the difference between a decision and a guess.

Also, being well-informed is not a one-time event -- one has to remain well-informed continually as new information often keeps coming in.

Being information savvy is a basic requirement of one's progress in any field.

There are certain characteristics of information-savvy people. Firstly, they tend to read a lot -- an individual who is averse to reading cannot be a well-informed person. They like to keep information in the categorised form as they have an innate ability to analyse the facts in front of them. They have the discipline of a logical progression of thought and quickly go through the What?, Why? and Where? in any situation.

Secondly, information-savvy persons have an insatiable curiosity rooted in a spirit of inquiry. Remember, information does not reach you, you have to reach out to the same.

Thirdly, such people have a healthy interest in human psychology and behaviour. All business or social interaction is a human activity and one must understand where somebody's response is coming from.

Fourth -- and this is very important -- the ability to identify the most useful information from the rest is a 'gift' in today's fast-moving world. Everybody does not have it. The capacity to distinguish essentials from non-essentials corresponds to the famous Pareto's Law that says 'there are a significant few amongst the insignificant many'. Finally, information-savvy people prefer an authoritative opinion to gossip. There is no dearth of credulous people in the world. In this age of misinformation and cyber fraud, the reliability of information being acted upon has to be ensured -- through a double-check system of some sort.

A lot of information can be accessed by tapping open sources. Publications and online databases are very important. The government is the biggest publisher of information. Associations give out useful information in specialised fields as illustrated by Harvard Business Review (HBR) and the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA).

Stanford Research Institute produces and mails special reports on markets and industries to members for a fee.

Libraries -- the traditional centers of knowledge -- remain as useful as before.

Media reports of credible investigative journalists can be listed as another source of open information. Today, 'Think Tanks' produces a lot of information but the advice here is that one should accept their facts not necessarily their findings. Meetings and conferences have emerged as another major source of business information and so is the case with industrial fares and exhibitions. There is a caution for those relying heavily on online information. Do not believe that all that is there on the Internet is trustworthy and remember that social media presently has become an instrument of 'influence warfare'.

A corporate body is possibly still missing out on tapping the wealth of information that was there within the organisation and outside because the system of interaction with its managers, consultants, and employees was inadequate and the feedback from its suppliers, bankers, and customers was not mopped up and analysed. Business organisations are waking up to this now and realising that no one might know everything but 'everybody knows something'.

Information or knowledge is a valuable instrument for success and the leaders of an organisation owe it to themselves to enhance its quantum by whatever means possible. They should be able to garner the 'tacit knowledge' that today's employees carry with them. Sharpening everybody's observation power should be on their agenda. As already mentioned, we see without observing, observe without absorbing, and absorb without discrimination only causing a clogging of the mind. Further, there is a learning for leadership from what Albert Einstein, the greatest scientist of all times, famously said -- 'Imagination is more important than knowledge'.

To be able to see the big picture behind what was in front and not miss the wood for the tree is one connotation of this profound observation. Imagination strengthens the power of anticipation and adds to the ability to make analytical deductions. Flawless communication also serves the cause of knowledge enhancement -- the person passing on the information must make sure that there is no ambiguity about its interpretation. Those seeking information must work with enthusiasm presuming that what they were looking for was available somewhere. Above all, an understanding of what confidentiality means in an organisational context goes with the function of handling information. In today's competitive world, all members must have an idea of what was to be preserved as the organisation's 'exclusive' information.

The importance of information has further increased because of the speed with which businesses are transacted and decisions are required to be taken. Globalisation has set a new bar to competitiveness and the need to monitor competition has grown manifold. Moreover, there has to be a certain 'completeness' about the information one has, for sound decision-making. This is because knowledge comes in integral packages -- for a business owner employing men and women knowledge of laws against harassment of women at the workplace was essential just as a teacher of children ought to have an idea of child psychology and parental stress as this is part of an integral package.

Finally, data analytics today has acquired a newfound importance as a knowledge enhancer and this is how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the business world. It helps in evaluating business matters ranging from authentic user reviews and buying patterns of purchasers to the customer's feedback faster than was ever possible before.

The larger the data bank better the application of AI for decision-making. AI is producing 'writing assistants' to help the efforts that would add to the company's productivity. With the rise in living standards, 'automation' is more and more in demand and AI is facilitating that. However, while AI is the most advanced use of Internet technology it is subject to the limitation that it would produce correct results only when the data fed into the system was reliable. One has to remember that there are both promises and perils associated with AI. Machine learning helps to increase productivity by improving the 'processing' of information. Nonetheless, AI operations cannot succeed totally without the aid of human intellect that provides the power of logic and imagination not available to the 'machine'.

(The writer is a former Director of the Intelligence Bureau. Views are personal)

--IANS

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