What happened to us? At some point during my lifetime, we as a society started demanding access to information almost instantaneously. I am dating myself for sure, but I can remember going to the local library on a Sunday afternoon to look up information for an assignment at school. I can remember the excitement of finally having access to an encyclopedia set at home and not having to go to the local library. I can even remember buying a home computer that came with a free copy of an entire encyclopedia set on an accompanying CD-ROM. When I was growing up, I used to check out all the sports scores in the morning newspaper while eating breakfast. I remember watching the evening news to find out what was going on in the world at the time. Fast forward a few years and I would find out the sports scores on ESPN or check out the world news on CNN. Nowadays, if I want to find out how my favorite sports teams are doing or learn about the news events of the day, I just check the Internet. We want - or more accurately, we demand - to know everything that is going on the moment it happens.
Want even more examples? How many times has this happened to you? Last week I was watching the Cubs play and one of the players, Albert Almora, Jr hit a foul ball into the stands. The ball apparently hit a spectator (in this case, a little girl) and Almora was really distraught. I didn't see what exactly had happened, so rather than waiting for an explanation from the sports announcer, I checked Twitter. I can't tell you how many times I've looked something up on the Internet or social media to find out something that was occurring in real time, even while watching the events unfold on live television. If I were being 100% honest, I have even checked for information on the Internet while watching a sports game in person. I am as guilty as anyone. When I want information, I usually want it right away and without delay.
It used to be that 24/7/365 (i.e., 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year) was a worthy goal. Now, in order to stay competitive and meet consumer demand, organizations have to be 60/60/24 (that is, 60 seconds a minute, 60 minutes an hour, 24 hours a day). Imagine how hard it is to keep up with this kind of demand! It's almost not possible.
Yesterday, I was waiting with my wife and daughter for our flight home from vacation at JFK International in New York. Both my daughter and I have the airline's app on our cell phones, and all three of us - my wife, my daughter, and I - had signed up for text message alerts when we checked in at the airport. Well, as frequently occurs, our flight was delayed. We had a plane and the weather was perfect - this time, we were waiting on pilots to fly the plane (maybe a subject for a future post). The gate agent had announced that there was a delay, but after about two hours we hadn't heard any new updates. We kept getting text messages on our cell phones about the new estimated departure time, and we were able to get the same information on the app. I went to go talk to the gate agent to see if she had any additional information. When I asked why she hadn't provided any additional updates for the last hour or two, she claimed that she had only just received an update a few minutes before I came up to talk to her! In other words, the passengers waiting at the gate had more up to date information (via the airline's own app) than the gate agent for the airline!
Unfortunately, I really can't blame the airline too much here. I have been in similar situations at the hospital when our employees find out something on social media while an event is happening in real time before our communications team has a chance to send out an update. Information happens fast - maybe even faster than we can provide it!
I don't have a solution here. A big part of leadership is change management. Managing change requires management of information. Providing information in a timely manner - even faster than you think - is absolutely essential. As leaders, we need to be fully cognizant that our employees want access to information - and that access has to be faster than the speed of light!
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