We’re overdosing on information, and it’s not helping productivity

Too much information is leading to ‘knowledge obesity’, says Atlassian work futurist Dom Price.

Atlassian work futurist Dom Price.

Dom Price has spent the last 10 years working as a work futurist at Atlassian – a company that prides itself of forging a new approach to work, including an agnostic view of staffers working in the office or at home.

As Australians head back to work after a summer break, Price summarised the big issues. He says that the binary office debate must “finally be put the bed”. Why is it, he asks, that almost half a decade after we all exited the office to avoid Covid-19, we’re still arguing whether we should go back? And he says “knowledge obesity is rotting the roots of problem solvers”.

What do you mean by knowledge obesity?

When I talk to executives, the repeated theme is, ‘Oh, we’ve read this article, and we know what we should be doing’. But they’re not doing it. Knowledge has become ubiquitous, it’s everywhere, but the skill we need as humans is applying it. We know we should be invested in people, we know we should find ways of working across the organisation, we should be more agile and nimble, we know we should listen to our customers. So you’ve overloaded yourself with knowledge. But the step that you’ve missed is the application of that knowledge.

What’s the solution?

Artificial intelligence can either make it easier or make it worse. If we understand the power of artificial intelligence, we can use it to give us more context.

I’m working with a team right now; they’re using artificial intelligence every Monday morning to help prioritise the meetings they need to be in and the decisions they need to make. But (don’t) use AI to create more content: I don’t need more content, I need more context.

We made the same mistake a few years ago when we had email and then we had chat; we didn’t reduce the number of emails, we increased the volume of knowledge, we didn’t increase the speed of our decision making. I also use AI to ask which projects should I care about, which meetings I need to attend.

Is there anything else that we should be doing about knowledge overload?

We need to set expectations clearly up front. (CEOs) are spreading themselves too thinly across too many things. They’d be better off picking one (change) and doing it well. I often say to the leaders I work with that if you’ve got 10 priorities, you’ve got no priorities. I think that’s pretty much the headline for modern business: it’s one thing and doing it well.

So if you had to pick one?

There are two issues that are coming up very strongly right now as themes. One is that the organisational chart is killing efficiency. We are so obsessed with functions, but our value is created horizontally across our business, not vertically. (People are saying) help us get better flow across the silos, help us work better with our teammates, with the other departments. You have to be able to adapt quicker and that requires a horizontal organisation. The second issue is vocation over location. We have become distracted talking about where people work. And actually the real problem is how we work.

We haven’t updated our operating system; we haven’t updated how we work.

In the pandemic, we had a glimpse of how we could (work differently) and I think the pendulum has swung back. But the opportunity is huge, because virtually every business I’m working with right now tells me their biggest asset is their people and yet they’re telling them you have to come back to the office ... and you have to be innovative in the next hour. They’re not building an environment where people can thrive.

You say you are over the binary work idea. Why?

I’m just done with the binary debate – whether you are working in the office or remotely. I think it’s time for us to do two things; one, mature to the fact that it’s about flexibility, it’s not about where people work. And then the second part is, how do we build other ways of working? How do we build ways that (overcome) barriers to collaboration? That’s not a technology problem, it’s how do I work with Helen better, how do I find a way to connect with her better? That’s a human problem that technology can amplify.

So I think the best leaders I’m working with right now are the ones investing in how do we work human to human? How do we evolve that? We’ve got different generations in the workforce, we’ve got diversity in the workforce and across different borders, time zones. And those businesses ( which understand how to increase collaboration) are more innovative, more creative, they will last longer and are more resilient.

Why are leaders holding back on the WFH idea?

There are a lot of leaders like me who have been around for a while who think, well when I was a graduate, this is how we did things and it worked for me. So that is our reference point. And sometimes, it’s just fear. But there is zero correlation or causation in having line of sight on someone and their productivity.

Then you get this even more perverse thing about productivity tools: let’s measure how many keystrokes (someone is making). There’s no link between keystrokes and your productivity: it’s your years of experience and wisdom, not how quickly you type.

I honestly don’t think we have a choice (about changing). If you want to hire the best people, then hire them where they are and build an environment where they can thrive – and that includes the office as well. I am not saying everything is about remote work, nor am I saying it’s about the office. I’m saying it’s about a combination of different environments.

What do you think is happening more broadly around attitudes to work?

There are generational differences. Some generations say, I am honoured to have a job and I’m loyal and a job enables me to live; then there are other people saying no, I live and a job’s a part of that, but it’s not my real identity, it’s not what I stand for. Those people also care more about the values, they care about charitable relationships, philanthropic relationships, and stuff like that. We’re seeing a much richer tapestry where that relationship is very different. It’s not, you pay me and I do a job; there’s way more involved in that transaction. That’s both good and bad, but when it’s works it means you have an intrinsically motivated employee.

Over the Christmas break I talked to people who were saying, “do you think we run the risk of creating lifestyle jobs?” I don’t think we do because we’ve shown when we give our people trust, they pay us back. (At Atlassian) if there’s anyone who’s dialling it in they’ll get found out. We work on a system of trust because we hire fully formed adults, we trust them to do the right thing, we give them the guardrails within which to work.

How much did the pandemic enable that?

Generationally, our data was showing that movement already. I think what Covid did was amplify it.