When does a wealth of data become too much information? Steve Doswell says there's a fine line for communicators

"The best way to cut through the noise is to have less noise" 

A large employer has invested thought, time and, evidently, money into creating a work environment that’s pleasant to work in and enlivening to the senses. It’s conventionally open plan but the configuration of space bathes employees in natural light. There’s a break-out area with half- partitioned walls covered in a thick indented fabric intended to soak up sound, enabling those who use it to speak normally without disturbing others nearby. There’s a boldness in the use of colour, too. This is a company with a clear visual identity and yet its people aren’t required to sit and work exclusively in the muted hues of its corporate colour scheme. So far, so very good. But I see a downside, too, and it’s one that goes to the heart of what we do in internal communication.

On virtually every wall space there are words – an outline of the company’s operations, its current strategy, its key objectives. Look up through the glazed atrium at the core of the building and statements of the company’s values cascade down the balconies. Walk along the aisles and any unattended laptops scroll messages alerting employees to the need to drive attentively to and from work. Around the workspace, plasma screens project further safety advice, performance updates and other information that the company has determined that its workforce absorb. Clearly, the company’s IC specialists have helped to engineer these many and varied attempts to secure brainspace in heads of the people who work there.

The aim to inform is laudable but the issue is one of overload, of the effective colonisation of the visual space, an onslaught of messaging that allows no respite from the constant clamour for attention of their ‘own’ work.

There are two effects. First, data fatigue, like becoming dazed and confused in a supermarket with too many competing varieties of alphabetti spaghetti to choose from (research studies show that excessive choice makes it harder to make quality decisions). The second effect is to create a visual, textual noise, a constant hubbub that the mind quickly learns (through self-preservation) to white out. Either way, our zeal to inform may actually be counterproductive. There are so many messages, the risk is that none of them really gets through.

The best way to cut through the noise is to have less noise. Composer Claude Debussy and later, jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, both said music isn’t the notes but the space between the notes. We could say something slightly different but in a similar vein about communication; to create meaning, to understand, accept and adopt new ideas and information, people need the space as well as the words. We also need stories and discussion, too, but let’s not clutter the argument.

When a training workshop facilitator in another organisation advised delegates to make time for reflection, there was derisory laughter. There was no time to get the job done anyway so fat chance of affording the luxury of ‘reflection’! And yet, how can we make good decisions unless we critically reflect on what we see and hear?

This may come across as a ‘slow the world down, this is my stop’ message but it isn’t. It’s an observation that we may neither have the capacity to keep on absorbing content, nor does it necessarily lead on its own to better informed, more engaged and therefore higher achieving workforces, which is IC’s purpose after all. Business thinker Tom Peters said, ‘Don’t just do something, sit there.’ Was that just an eye-catching, glib twist on words or profound zen wisdom? Think about it.

Steve Doswell is chief executive of the Institute of Internal Communication You can find him on Twitter @stevedoswell