THE WELCH COMPANY
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S U M M A R Y
DIARY: April 8, 2006 11:12 AM Saturday;
Rod Welch
Information density clogs communication drives management to entropy.
1...Summary/Objective
2...Email Unread Piling Up Drives Error, Conflict, Crisis, Calamity
3...Information Technology Makes Knowledge Management a Lot of Hard Work
..............
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SUBJECTS
Information Density Clogs Communication Complexity Chaos Command Con
2703 -
2703 - ..
2704 - Summary/Objective
2705 -
270501 - Follow up ref SDS 20 NT6J, ref SDS 18 RP54.
270502 -
270503 - Excellent analysis by Gary on email piling up in computers that
270504 - shrinks. awareness of history. He presents a lucid explanation of why
270505 - management degrades to entropy (found in prior studies). Management
270506 - quickly degrades due to reliance on personal memory, because, as Gary
270507 - notes in part... "The more things needed to be remembered in a unit of
270508 - time, the smaller the unit of time has to be before memory capacity is
270509 - reached."
270510 -
270511 - [On 060412 outlining software supports requirement for
270512 - structure to use alphabet technology for working intelligently
270513 - that complements wordprocessing that makes writing attractive.
270514 - ref SDS 25 3H5G
270515 -
270516 -
270517 -
270518 -
270520 - ..
2706 -
2707 -
2708 - Progress
2709 -
270901 - Email Unread Piling Up Drives Error, Conflict, Crisis, Calamity
270902 - Information Technology Makes Knowledge Management a Lot of Hard Work
270903 -
270904 - Gary reports on 060222 ad hoc research showing unread email piles up
270905 - on computers, reducing productivity of daily work. ref SDS 21 0001
270906 - Without precision access, command and control fails. People forget
270907 - history and mistakes mount because people ignore requirements for good
270908 - management, reported on 020504. ref SDS 11 NS6F Fear of
270909 - accountability drives fear of discussing history as "nitpicking the
270910 - past." e.g., on 950517. ref SDS 2 8599
270912 - ..
270913 - Gary's analysis supports work on 040620 showing people are giving up
270914 - on good management to save lives, time, and money, because "in the
270915 - moment" there is not enough time" for accuracy. ref SDS 17 RF6O More
270916 - recently, on 051113 work updating NWO presents challenges of
270917 - transformation to a culture of knowledge. ref SDS 19 C45J Gary's
270918 - research further demonstrates biological drives to work spontaneously
270919 - "in-the-moment," rather than invest time for cognitive overhead to
270920 - read and analyse. This complements research reported on 970707 by
270921 - USAFIT, ref SDS 5 0108, and more recently on 040312 where locality
270922 - principle requires adding enery to "connect the dots" of cause and
270923 - effect that converts information into the power of knowledge that
270924 - predicts the future; failure to make connections devolves management
270925 - to entropy, ref SDS 5 0611, using ad hoc "feel good" work practices
270926 - cited by Morris on 911123. ref SDS 1 1331 The basic problem is that
270927 - complexity hides and suppresses problems until a critical mass of
270928 - bumbling explodes into chaos. ref SDS 16 D85M Gary notes that work
270929 - becomes a frenzy of moment-to-moment decisions when accuracy cannot be
270930 - authenticated, and so history ceases to be meaningful.
270932 - ..
270933 - This ad hoc study illustrates how work product relies primarily on
270934 - personal memory, ref SDS 21 KV9P, without support of technology to
270935 - expand span of attention by integrating personal and organiztional
270936 - memory...
270937 -
270938 - 1. Nobody using technology to manage
270939 - daily working information; mentoring
270940 - best technology for knowledge
270941 - management........................... 060317, ref SDS 24 IT5R
270943 - ..
270944 - 2. Ad hoc study found managers and
270945 - engineers giving up on good management;
270946 - hundreds of unread email; nobody
270947 - can manage daily communications;
270948 - command and control of work limited
270949 - by personal memory and span of
270950 - attention; drives productivity
270951 - toward entropy....................... 060222, ref SDS 21 0001
270953 - ..
270954 - 3. When command and control of the
270955 - record fails, people are forced
270956 - to rely on personal memory, and
270957 - as project time increases the share
270958 - of critical details people remember
270959 - for a unit of time decreases
270960 - driving management toward
270961 - entropy.............................. 060222, ref SDS 21 KV9P
270963 - ..
270964 - 4. VA clinic manager months behind
270965 - reading email; cannot find
270966 - notice of action items and cannot
270967 - find organizational memory for
270968 - performing work quickly and
270969 - accurately, because unable to
270970 - perform requirements on
270971 - documentation for good
270972 - management........................... 060221, ref SDS 20 NT6J
270974 - ..
270975 - 5. Assignment to document meetings
270976 - and brief management difficult to
270977 - perform because manager has 300
270978 - unread email and no time for
270979 - briefings............................ 050722. ref SDS 18 RP54
270981 - ..
270982 - 6. Good management practices using
270983 - information technology proved very
270984 - difficult............................ 040227, ref SDS 14 RH77
270986 - ..
270987 - 7. Order, structure, pattern critical
270988 - elements of rational analysis
270989 - to accurately understand cause
270990 - and effect for working
270991 - intelligently........................ 040312, ref SDS 15 RP6K
270993 - ..
270994 - 8. Locality principle requires adding
270995 - energy to connect cause and effect,
270996 - and without this effort, 2nd law of
270997 - thermodynamics drives understanding
270998 - toward entropy....................... 040312, ref SDS 15 YH4G
271000 - ..
271001 - 9. History button occassionally seen
271002 - as useful technology for managing
271003 - growing volume of communications
271004 - from email, calls, and
271005 - meetings............................. 030821, ref SDS 13 NH5N
271007 - ..
271008 - 10. Bill Gates reported a lot of useless
271009 - information piling up on computers
271010 - because people cannot find critical
271011 - details on email, calls and
271012 - meetings when needed................. 021108, ref SDS 12 EF5I
271014 - ..
271015 - 11. Email paralyzes productivity
271016 - because not enough time to add
271017 - "intelligence" that organizes
271018 - communications for accurate
271019 - understanding timely follow
271020 - up................................... 011003, ref SDS 10 EC5N
271022 - ..
271023 - 12. Study shows information density
271024 - overwhelms span of attention
271025 - causing economy to implode into
271026 - recession when too many people
271027 - have too many problems............... 011003, ref SDS 10 O76L
271029 - ..
271030 - 13. People give up on good management
271031 - practices; despair not enough time
271032 - using familiar tools that are
271033 - popular and approved for daily
271034 - work................................. 011003, ref SDS 10 SP6G
271036 - ..
271037 - 14. Email "killer application" that
271038 - kills productivity with continual
271039 - bumbling; stream of conscious
271040 - construction in email produces
271041 - high rate of errors comparable to
271042 - verbal communications, because
271043 - laziness produces "fools gold"
271044 - creating illusion of progress
271045 - reacting on impulse that ignores
271046 - analysis and accuracy................ 010908, ref SDS 9 YF5O
271048 - ..
271049 - 15. Documentation practices using
271050 - popular information technology,
271051 - like email, that is easy to learn
271052 - and use, and so commonly approved
271053 - for use on the job takes a lot of
271054 - hard work to perform knowledge
271055 - management and so people just
271056 - give up on accuracy to save lives
271057 - time, and money...................... 000307, ref SDS 8 767G
271059 - ..
271060 - 16. Tsunami storm information density
271061 - email, calls, meetings overwhelming
271062 - nobody has time to think............. 980613. ref SDS 7 3499
271064 - ..
271065 - 17. Information overload pandemic;
271066 - nobody has time to absorb volume
271067 - of email, calls, and meetings with
271068 - popular information technologies -
271069 - CBS News study........................980412, ref SDS 6 8956
271071 - ..
271072 - 18. Management degrades to entropy on
271073 - all large projects because people
271074 - are overwhelmed using popular
271075 - information technologies that are
271076 - fast and easy to learn and use -
271077 - DOD USAFIT report.....................970707, ref SDS 5 0611
271079 - ..
271080 - 19. 70% day wasted unproductive meetings
271081 - because people unprepared do not
271082 - have command and control for access
271083 - to details in work history........... 960205, ref SDS 4 5902
271085 - ..
271086 - 20. She reads email - shock, surprise
271087 - director of academic department at
271088 - MIT...................................951214, ref SDS 3 I741
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2711 -