In my Introduction to Acquiring and Creating the RIGHT Information article, the first method I presented was the “search” method. The search for related data and information is normally an every day activity for leaders in an organization and honestly, for almost anyone working. At a basic level, bits of raw data like phone numbers, email addresses, physical mailing address, production information, demographics, etc. are quite necessary for various roles within an organization including sales, accounting, marketing, and customer service. At the heart of any business exists a massive amount of data and information that is necessary for existence and operations. So, what do you search for and what is the purpose of search, and “why” search for information?

In my last post, “What is the Right Information?“, I presented that raw data is a collection of symbols that represents certain attributes, activities, etc., that exist. This data might exist in your own IT database, in a stack of papers representing customer interviews, in the heads of sales people or customer service reps, in newspapers or magazine articles, or out there in the millions of data repositories you can find via web search. This brings us to the point that you can determine sources of data that make sense and ensure that you target those sources for search, but the process of “looking for,” or “searching” data is more about gathering “information.” Information answers questions about data such as who, what, when, where, and how many. We calculate data to arrive at information. We sort and correlate data into information. We, in essence, ask questions of data through our IT department or in a spreadsheet, or on paper, and arrange that data into what we call information.

You make conscious choices when searching data for information, so let’s look more closely and targeted data and targeted information search that may be useful.

The RIGHT Data Sources
In every organization, there are certain sources of information that are deliberately determined and specifically searched for all, and that information is made available. Unfortunately, for many organizations, individual leaders in the organization are left to determine sources of data on their own. These are specific financial reports, forecast reports, inventory reports, A/R aging reports, market share reports, etc. that along the way various leaders asked for as a means of managing the business (meaning, as a means of turning data into information based on the questions they wanted to answer). There are also individual or group meetings where data points come up and are shared – rumors, specific feedback from external sources, internal dialogs.

What is more difficult is that for many organizations, there is no concerted effort to ensure that the organization is targeting the right sources of data and beyond these standard “provided” data/information points, leaders often don’t stop to ask “What other information should I be looking at?” and passively wait for information to appear. So, here is a list of the best “other” sources of information that you may want to spend some time researching.

1. In-depth customers data analysis
Most companies know who buys their products, when, and how much. In fact, B2C companies most likely know much, much more about their customers because this is an essential part of marketing, product development, and contributes greatly to success or failure. However, there are many B2B companies that do not delve into asking enough questions about what kind of customers they have, how they relate to what they are buying and each other, deeper trends that the data may reveal and what this means about customers, etc. So, if your company has only superficially scratched at this source of data, dig in.

2. Social Media
Listening to social media is starting to be a large fruitful source of information for many organizations. You can purchase software to enable this or pay a retainer to a social media services organization to begin building a strong view of what people say about your organization, your brands, your products, and your service in blogs, forums, or on other social media platforms.

Social media is also a great resource for finding out what competitors are doing, what people are saying about your competitors, and what your own customers are doing and saying in the market. Are their changes in leadership? How are you connected to others in the market that might be helpful? Is there talk about new product development or new target markets for certain customers? I guess the point is, have a social media strategy and ensure you consider that a source of information.

3. Your own employees
I know it sounds silly to point out that you can find great information from your own employees. However, not every company has a structure and cultural environment that encourages employees to share information, especially across departments. You should have a specific plan on how you ensure that real conversations with employees give ample opportunity for sharing, are developed using open questions that draw out information, and includes opportunity for cross-department communication.

4. The “hard to find” information
Sometimes the most important information you need is the hardest to get. When you are asking questions about data looking for that “information,” and you can’t find the answer readily, I would suggest that you not give up too soon. Explore other avenues for that information. Ask for help. I can think of times when I’ve heard, “if we had only known … ,” and on occasion that information could have been known if at the first roadblock someone had not just moved on to an easier information gathering task.

5. Broader information needed
This is about the times you have gathered information from the normal sources and maybe even some new sources, but you still need to broaden the information about a specific situation or issue. Using a search engine is great, and having a few reports handy is as well. However, knowing “more” of the story to ensure you have the full picture is a type of activity that delivers value. Don’t forget this bucket either when looking for information. Get the broad picture.

Awareness of Your Search Disabilities
The last thing to discuss here is that you need to make sure you are keenly aware of certain disabilities or “traps” you may fall into when searching for information.

First, you may already be filtering information based on some bias – your established view of your situation, the market, the “way we have done things,” or your own assumed answer to the question you are asking when searching. So your own bias may actually influence where you search and what you find. Get as much information as possible and hope you find challenges to your filter to assist you in proving out what is right.

Another trap is harder to surface because in essence it is your own inability to see a blind spot in your search. You simply may not know what information you really need. I know as I research the field of the “learning organization,” I am finding even more information that I did not know I wanted to study. Uncovering what you need to know is a process and gives yourself enough time and effort to spark new ideas about what you need to know. This is where it helps to have a great team that can also weigh in on what kinds of information might be needed, with each team member complimenting the search and hopefully filling in some blind spots.

The final note on traps would be the trap of “not sharing information.” Sharing information widely brings great benefit in keeping everyone informed, but also in giving everyone an opportunity to interact with the information and ask more questions. Personally, I’ve always felt I asked many of the right questions, but I’ve learned that I rarely have asked ALL of the right questions without teamwork.

Next, I will examine “inquiry” more closely.