We are now living in a world of high communication, where the amount of information we generate and receive each day is at unprecedented levels. It is estimated that this is 5 times greater now than it was pre-Internet.
Given this phenomenon has occurred in such a short period, for many of us who remember not having the Internet, we have struggled to cope with this information overload. There is so much choice and so many information sources competing for our attention that we sometimes find it overwhelming. For many the solution is to turn off or just stick to the habitual sources we have always used.

From our company perspective, being an information generator, we realise that if we want to form an attentive audience then the quality of what we publish matters greatly. We have taken the stance that we will not publish or communicate anything that an audience will not find of use in some way. Now we realise that the judgement of usefulness is subjective to the receiver, but that is the intent. We realise that there is so much pressure on people’s limited time to receive so much information, that if it is not useful in some way, they will simply disregard it.
We do a lot of training around efficient verbal communication also. We realise that the attention span of human beings now is the shortest it’s ever been in history. If we want to hold someone’s attention we need to communicate clearly and efficiently. It’s not only the words, it is also the speed and tone of the language. You can explain something in one well thought out script or you can waffle on over explaining and repeating yourself. We know from trial and error that the responses from the recipients are often vastly different. We encourage our agents to dot point their conversations before having them so they can communicate clearly, particularly so when negotiating. It’s a simple practice however we have found the outcomes are far superior than when they just shoot from the hip.

As a business, the lesson we have learnt is quite simple, it is always the quality of the information we generate rather than the quantity that dictates whether we get heard or not, and getting heard in an age of information overload is one of the greatest challenges for any individual or business.