The other day, there was heated discussion on how people keep leveraging others to meet their needs which got me thinking about “How does one actually benefit from others information”. Digging and within 5 meters, and taking certain personal clues mapped out where the information could be used or may not be used at all
Then comes the question what kind of information are we actually talking about and that’s about when the mind starts getting bogged down. That is when the following questions pop up regularly:
- What is it for?
- Who’s going to use it?
- How are you going to use it? and
- When do we need to use it are the big questions which will keep coming?
Paradoxically, at certain periods, you may have only a very short duration where you can actually use that information.
Information, when available can make a deal look really successful or when there’s no deal and when there’s no information it can make a deal really look bad. This viewpoint depends on which side of the table you’re sitting on. In Contracts and economics, this term comes down to a term called Information asymmetry (Wikipedia page). This terminology before the world wide web was ever present where one party had all the cards while the other party just had less or next to nothing awareness.
Researching on a topic
Taking a cue from Dan Pink’s book “Being Human” where he illustrates this classic example “buying cars especially second-hand cars”. Previously, you as the buyer had the least amount of information compared to the car dealer, relying on friends, friends of friends or painstakingly call all the dealers in your area. Now, with technology allowing the buyer access to information of a Matt Grey Volkswagen Polo 1.2L Petrol with no automatic windows for rear sitting in the dining table and browsing the web for around an hour or so. You can translate this to purchase of a gaming console, LEGO models and a certain favourite in Netherlands – bicycles! within your local area. Back to the cars, by spending the 60 minutes, it allows you to focus on three dealers vs spending entire weekends over few months visiting all the dealers. Do remember, not everyone is going to put all their information on their websites or on third party websites because you never know what actually priced, they bought it for. The next step requires you to visit the dealer to get the deal done. But now, you have the information at hand prior to visiting the car dealers and knowing what you can buy the car for.
Enabling Decisions
Similarly, appointments at your local GP/doctor, you would listened to stories which goes by saying that people have visited the hospital for no reason and then they return back being told you’re actually not well and you need to do surgery or some scale special treatment in five (5) days’ time. Instead, what would it take for us to ask One (1) question or a few questions – What is the basis of that diagnosis, what information you have in your hand that you literally have no understanding of. This is where the “second and third opinion” kicks in. This is applicable for any decision you need to make – at times the decisions made by heart over rules even the information is counter to the decision about to be taken!
Children are great at this, they ask adults questions for which we will not have awareness of or just no answers to their questions. Oh, then there’s the dilemma how are you going to answer in a way a child will understand.
And that is also the power of information where you translate it into a meaningful form enabling one to take a decision.
The internal dilemma
Information when used for yourself can be said “hey this is fair game I’m aware of the information and it has helped me”. However, if that information can cause problems to the other side, what would you do then faced with such a situation? Do you leverage it in your favour and say “I know what effort I’ve put in to get this information and use it for the upcoming discussions, next contract negotiations” vs not using that information. An alternative – posing the gathered information as a question or test the information as a hypothesis. This would allow you to check whether that information is valid or not.
“Oh what if I share” dilemma
One of the challenges when writing these articles was on the information I’m sharing or going to share. What if the information titbit you share helps you or even used against you! That was one of the biggest dilemmas being faced while writing these articles. Instead, the realization is what I’ve learned, or learning is not new., It’s there in existence already and it’s not going to be anything so radical even after 10 years. An example are the historical quotes which keeps giving lessons on daily life. The difference between today and tomorrow is that you would have taught someone, or you will learn something new today for that tomorrow when somebody comes to you seeking your help or guidance.
The concepts you teach, the concepts you learn and share can enable people to become better daily or even 1% in a month, so why not keep sharing information.
At the end, what you learn today will be for a better tomorrow!