Information can be found in old-fashioned places
When I tell most of my clients to talk to a live person or look up information in a reference book, they look at me as if I have two heads.
Isn't it listed somewhere online⢠Can't I go to my computer and find it, they want to know. I've suggested the live person or reference book option because they can't find it online. But, they usually blow off my suggestion.
What's with that⢠I've gathered more inside information from a helpful administrative assistant in a three-minute phone conversation than a 30-minute Web search. But hardly anyone thinks to talk to someone or seek traditional references.
This seems prevalent in younger workers.
"Their reliance on the Internet seems to have blanked out any knowledge of research tools that I grew up with in the Pleistocene Era," a 40-something producer at CBS News told me.
Recently a twentysomething employee asked his advice for finding a company's phone number after having failed to find it on their Web site. This, he says, "from someone who was 2 feet from a telephone, 6 feet from a phone book and one flight of stairs from our reference library. The idea that facts can be found in books sometimes comes as a surprise."
It could have something to do with the way they have grown up communicating.
"Young knowledge workers tend to be hypercommunicative," says an article in SoftBase reprinted from Information Week. While most knowledgeable workers use written or spoken communication, these young employees "have more variations and protocols, including e-mail, instant messaging, broadband Internet, wireless and much more," the article says.
Even when people sit next to one another, their primary method of communication is instant messaging (a type of e-mail that happens in real time with the sender expecting a reply immediately.) They also view e-mail differently, stressing the need to communicate and get responses quickly.
But, this addiction to instant gratification when it comes to getting data is catchy. Workers of all ages seem to think information should be available in a nanosecond. It doesn't occur to even those who grew up thumbing through handsomely bound encyclopedias and library reference books to go to a book.
Why bother talking to someone when you can hit a few keystrokes to get what you need⢠There are some things that can't be replaced, such as humans who are in the know and like to be helpful from time to time.
So, the next time you want to know something, don't limit your resources to the Internet. Check out a book. Or, try saying this to a person: "I have a problem, and I'm wondering if you can help." They probably will stop what they're doing and listen and potentially be your best link to what you want to know.
