I sent you an email
Didn’t you see the message in Teams? Didn’t see it. Which Channel is it in?
Personal Information Queuing
This is a real thing and we all do it. Some do it consciously and others do it sub consciously. By and large, we probably do a pretty good job of it from our own perspective. However, from a larger system perspective we don’t necessarily know how much, if at all, we are delaying something from happening downstream.
The information value stream is very complex, interconnected and non-linear. Forcing it into some type sequence may create some initial streamlining, but likely at some other unknown costs so that is not necessarily the best answer.
The other unknown factor is how many other information queues a person is participating in. How many other streams is an individual involved? Maybe if all information streams were internal and flowed through something like Slack, but the reality is that not all information streams flow in quite the same way.
Hub People/Core People
There are some people that need to be hubs. Does all information need to flow through them? How much attention do they pay to each item that comes into their
Spoke People/Edge People
These are the people on the edge (who isn’t on the edge these days?) who are simultaneously closest to where information is generated and needed, but also furthest out from where the core of the information is.
Maybe a policy changed. Maybe a clarification was issued? But maybe the person didn’t see it yet. Or maybe they didn’t get it all. Maybe they got it but haven’t read it yet. Maybe they got it, but it didn’t really sink in on how it applied to them.
Not my Queues
The challenge is that we are responsible for our own information queues. Most of the time our information queue prioritization is set in an adhoc manner. The more that your information queues can be made visible, the easier it will be to prioritize for the good of the whole organization.
