What is the typical business profile of people who face these issues?

This workshop is for managers at all levels who rely on information to do their jobs, but feel overwhelmed by the volume of information they have to digest every day. Managers who could improve their results by improving their information handling will greatly benefit. Also, managers of teams where information flow is an issue will also benefit.

How will I benefit from participating in this workshop?

After participating in this workshop, you will be better able to:

• Get things done by better managing how you handle information
• Exchange information with others in a more effective and time-saving way
• Be more productive personally
• Improve the performance of your team with better information
• Work with your IT colleagues for best information solutions
• Make better, more informed decisions

What will I do in this workshop?

The workshop employs a number of different methods. You’ll gain some new concepts and tools. You’ll work together in pairs and groups on live exercises to practice new information handling skills. Naturally, some live work will be done on internet and so you are encouraged to bring your laptop.

Information Behaviour 

How do you approach and handle information?  It is generally understood to comprise two key activities: information-seeking behavior and information-use behavior. You will learn and practice:

• How do you look for information?
• How do you use information?
• How do you recognize others’ information behaviour?
• What do you do about it? 
• How do you deal with dysfunctional behaviours such as hoarding, or ignoring information?

Information Profile 

People differ in the way they collect, analyze, and disseminate information. Yet, hardly anyone uses this knowledge when they exchange information. An information profile serves as an aid to understand a person’s information habits. An information profile is a list of a person’s information characteristics. It describes a person’s aptitude, attitude, and way they handle information. You will learn how to:

• Define your own information profile
• Recognize other people’s information profile
• Better communicate by bridging to other people’s profiles

 Information Productivity 

Computers may be getting faster every year but our brains haven’t changed much. Still, there are things we can do to be more productive as human beings:

• Identify the symptoms, barriers and causes to ineffective information usage 
• Be smarter at work with information
• Help employees in be smarter information workers
• Manage information workers better, even if they are geographically dispersed

Working with IT Colleagues  

IT, the same technologies you might blame for your information overload, can also be your friend in taming information flows. Partnering with your IT colleagues can help you to get the tools you need to better access and deploy the right information to the right people at the right time.:

• Understanding the opportunities of IT, as well as the constraints, for example, security risks
• How to communicate with your IT colleagues – how to understand what they are saying. 
• How to communicate your business objectives and management needs
• Improve your IT skills with the help and support of IT and IT people

Information for Decision-Making  

Managers are said to make more than hundred decisions every day. They should be based on reliable and good information. Information is what we communicate to one another. It is transmitted with the latest technologies, among people at large, and between individuals. These information flows convey meaning; in the business world as these flows are the basis for decision-making by managers.

•  Know the kind of information needed to make an informed decision
• Techniques for researching information needed
• Managing information collections
• Gather, store, and re-use information for decision-making
• Avoiding analysis paralysis

Action Plan  

• Evaluate your information management practice based on what you’ve learned
• Identify the highest value opportunities for change
• Create an action plan to implement once you return to work