We all suffer from it. Being deluged in ‘misinformation‘ from a source that is so arrogant and uncaring, they scatter so much of what they perceive as vital information into my email, WhatsApp, SMS, Facebook, Instagram etc. that they make everything irrelevant – even though there might be some mission-critical information in the deluge.
So, I end up suffering from ‘Relevance Fatigue‘ – where it becomes unbeneficial to wade through misinformation because (a) life is too short and (b) I’m not impressed that the organisation I’m with cannot be bothered to make things relevant to me despite having detailed information about my roles and responsibilities.
Let me give you an example – imagine a home delivery driver in a retail environment. His HQ know how to address them, their age, role, location, qualifications, medical dates, accident records, training records and more.
Suppose this driver is used to receiving misinformation in the form of generic emails for all employees, customer-facing, logistics, back office etc. and ignoring it because 90% is irrelevant to them and their colleagues in the area where they work.
What would happen if there is a request by the organisation that all home delivery drivers who have had a claim in the last three years attend an external training course in order for the organisation to receive substantial savings on their insurance premium? The opportunity would be lost, no matter how well somebody in the organisation negotiated to save money – their efforts will have been wasted due to Relevance Fatigue.
And it’s not just Head Office email that is guilty; almost all forms of communication can carry misinformation. With such a selection of methods to contact and message, it is becoming a minefield to establish that (a) the information has been received and (b) it has been acted upon. Newsletters and Email Bulletins are particularly guilty of assuming publication is an assurance of receipt (and action). We have moved into an era of curated information as a solution to the deluge that the web has brought to us. You can now select your sources, authors, journalists that you trust or share their views rather than being subjected to a newspaper editor’s choice – so why not my organisation’s information?
I do not want to waste time absorbing information that is irrelevant to my role and responsibilities nor will help my duties and performance – I only want targeted information that I perceive as relevant to my world. If an organisation wants to make my operations and tasks seem insignificant, then making me suffer from Relevance Fatigue is a sure-fire way to make that happen. However, if an organisation has the intelligence to ensure that ALL of my communications are relevant firstly to me and then to my activities, I will be motivated to ensure that the execution will comply with the organisation’s wishes. Now tie this targeted messaging into the ability to mount the implementation into an automated process – Suddenly, a world of efficiency opens its door in a way that email and mass messaging in all its evil forms could not.
Imagine if our home delivery driver could have been targeted directly regarding the insurance change due to their accident record (all held digitally in the same place). He could have booked himself on the correct course to achieve total compliance with all this being visible to HQ with the benefit of exception management – now imagine metro!
To summarise –
Mass messaging methods = misinformation and results in Relevance Fatigue.
Metro = targeted relevance and automated process action to achieve employee engagement, satisfaction and accurate visible activity.
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