RSS streams, Tweets, eBooks, email, meetings, phone calls, magazines, social media, and books, to name a few, I propose 2010 the year of less noise and more decisions.   

We are swimming, some might say drowning, in communication saturation*.  Nearing the end of the year I thought to post this blog to share with others my goal to manage noise and get an idea from many of you how you approach information and communication saturation to break ourselves from being slaves of the feed**.

Knowledge is power, but decision making needs to make a comeback if for us to realize our potential.  With all this noise, this information, this data, is your decision-making process improved?  We now have access to more information than we can possibly process, the constant challenge:  you can never have all the information and time is your biggest enemy against knowing everything.

So what do you do to filter down to decisions?  When's the last time you made a decision instead of a deadline making a decision for you?

Here is how I see the funnel towards decisions (if I had time I would have made a mad 3D hierarchy pyramid, but alas...I ask you to envision one from mere words. If anyone wants to send me a graphic, I'll add it) with noise as the pyramid base:

1. Noise - all the 0s and 1s being throughout the web, over the airwaves, across the spectrum
2. Research - the initial question, I wonder if... that sends you seeking answers
3. Information - the all-source return dump from your question or a 1-way flare (information is different from communication:  see below)
4. Data - the filter to makes sense of what is valuable and what is garbage
5. Communication - the 2-way relay of what you find and what needs further refinement
6. Interpretation - the unaccountable and unseen layers of values, wants, needs, bias, emotions, and agendas (to name a few) that your communication target has filtered your communicate through to draw their own interpretation of the information or data.  Note:  you have no control that how or what you communicate is interpreted as you intended; caution when proceeding
7. Conversation - the deeper dialogue to clarify responsibility
8. Decision - the shared commitment

Let's flip the pyramid with the top now on the bottom, kind of like hanging the world map upside down, an alternative perspective:

1. Decision
2. Conversation
3. Interpretation
4. Communication
5. Data
6. Information
7. Research
8. Noise

Professionals are valued and paid to make decisions and to make tough decisions.  The gray-haired sage is expected to draw upon experience to help interpret and filter to make quicker decisions.

Here are 2 ways to start with decisions in mind:

1. Begin with a hypothesis - if the hypothesis is proven wrong, all the better, add the new elements and revisit the hypothesis.
2. Identify the constraints to better hone the target -  What limits your journey from noise to decision:  time? money? competition?  Perfection is the enemy of good, go with what you have of course showing up to meetings prepared also helps...

Good luck to everyone in 2010.  I value all the great dialogue, writing, Tweeting, and networking you have shared, because this is the power of social media, the wisdom of crowds and, unfortunately, at times, the Oxbow Incident. 

*good name for a blog:  Communication in the Age of Saturation part 1, part 2, and part 3, just trying to help
**very good December 15th blog post by Thomas Petersen, Slaves of the feed – This is not the realtime we’ve been looking for