Information drives business and your ability to accomplish any task or goal is directly related to your ability to find what you need, when you need it.  Listen as I share some of the key challenges to managing information in your organization and how to know if your organization needs a better system for managing information. Podcast Duration: 04:12 (MM:SS) Transcript Also Available.

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Podcast Transcript

Information drives business. Your ability to accomplish any task or goal is directly related to your ability to find what you need, when you need it. Research shows the average organization:

• spends $20 in labor to file each document
• loses one out of every 20 documents
• spends $120 in labor searching for each misfiled document
• and invests 25 hours recreating each lost document.

Managing and leveraging information is a challenge for two key reasons:

1. Leaders (or their staff) can’t find what they need when they need it, don’t even know they have it, so they can’t take advantage of it, or have to recreate it! AND...
2. The amount of information is compounding exponentially every day, while the cost of NOT managing it is reaching catastrophic proportions.

Michael Dell says that by 2020 the world will generate 35 times as much data annually as in 2010.

Mark Hurd (President of Oracle) has stated “more data will be created in the next four years than in the history of the planet.”

My business is based on the premise that every organization must have a SYSTEM (Saving You Space Time Energy Money!) for answering the 6 Information Management Questions:

1. What information do we need to keep?
2. In what form?
3. For how long?
4. Who is responsible for filing it?
5. Who needs access to it?
6. How can we find it?

How do you know if your organization needs a better system for managing information? Do what I did 30 years ago on the playground when I listened to people complain about the paper clutter taking over their homes. Listen to what frustrates them about their work. Some key phrases to listen for include:

• "I just can’t get everything done -- I’m exhausted!”
• “Let’s meet in the conference room.” (What they may NOT be saying is “My office is a mess.")
• "I hate email." 
• "Our office is moving and I have to pack up everything." 
• "I’ll get back to you on that.” (Which may mean “I can’t find what I need!) 
• “Do you know where to find -- (you fill in the blank)?
• “Sorry I’m late.” 

So here’s my challenge for you this week! If you hear any variation of these concerns from your employees or colleagues, please introduce them to me and I'll take it from there!

And one more thing, if you or someone you know is having difficulty organizing information at work, it may be a challenge at home too! If that’s the case, my newest book Organizing Paper @ Home: What To Toss and How To Find the Rest! is the answer. Visit organizingpaperathome.com to order your copy today. If you’re interested in communicating to your employees that you really care about them, and want them to accomplish their work AND enjoy their lives, let’s talk about scheduling a presentation -- live or via the Internet -- for your organization.

Post your comments or questions in the comments area of this episode. If you like this podcast and think a friend or colleague can benefit from it please share it with them using the Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn buttons on the podcast page on my website.” Until next week, I’m Barbara Hemphill. Thanks for listening!