5

Gathering Information

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

•   Identify the two methods of information gathering.

•   List two occasions when information gathering is not appropriate.

•   Identify two requirements for effective questions in the information-gathering process.

•   List two ways that written materials are valuable in information gathering.

THE IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATION GATHERING IN PROBLEM SOLVING

Sherlock Holmes, wandering around with a magnifying glass in his hand looking for telltale used matchbooks and suspicious articles of clothing with laundry marks in them that, fortuitously, could be traced to a criminal, was engaged in information gathering. It was an essential step in the process of solving the problem of who killed Mr. X. To become a successful problem solver yourself, you need to develop some comparable skills.

The Information at Hand

Jorge Silva had been on the job for just a few days when his manager came to him with a serious problem. Jorge was the new telecommunications coordinator for Modern Furniture, which sold discounted furniture in fifty showrooms in the seven-state area. The director of showroom facilities was his boss, and she told him that the showroom managers had voiced serious complaints about their new telecommunications system at yesterday’s quarterly sales meeting. The director warned Jorge that maintaining good relations with the showroom managers was essential to his job success. She told him to find out what the problem was and report back to her within a week.

Jorge tried not to panic. He knew he had to solve this problem quickly, but he was so new to his job that he still had trouble finding his office. He started thinking about all the things he didn’t know. Who were the showroom managers? What were they so upset about? Why were they angry now, just after getting a brand new telecommunications system? Jorge realized he needed to fill in quite a bit of missing information in the coming week.

Jorge’s dilemma is an example of something that is common to problem solvers. That is, he can’t define, let alone solve, his problem with the information he has right now. This may seem obvious now, but often it’s not.

Elise is an example. Her boss came over to her desk and asked, “What’s the matter with the staff in telemarketing? The past few times I’ve walked through there, they’ve looked at me funny and I hear a lot of whispering. What’s going on?” Elise froze. She didn’t have any idea what was wrong in telemarketing. She didn’t socialize with the telemarketing staff, and she wasn’t the type to gossip. What could she tell her boss?

Too many of us react the way Elise did, believing we are responsible for defining problems (or solving them) with the information we have on hand. We forget that we have the option of gathering additional information. If Elise had responded, “I don’t know, but I can try to find out,” it would have been much more effective.

Gathering Further Information

It’s a safe generalization that any problem you may be confronted with would benefit from investigation. You may discover some important new information that reshapes the way you view the problem.

If you think you have a solution to your problem, try it out. Discuss it with distant acquaintances, who are more likely to tell you whether there are holes in your thinking than like-minded friends would.

When Information Gathering Is Appropriate

You might be asking yourself when you should conduct information gathering. It is appropriate at any stage in the problem-solving process. Regardless of whether you are trying to define the problem or work on the solution, some new information could be helpful. Don’t cut yourself off from potentially helpful information with the belief that it’s too late in the process to go back and check some facts. (There is one exception to this generalization. See When Information Gathering Is Not Appropriate.)

Cal is an example. Cal had spent the last month on an assignment from his supervisor to find out why the standard envelope made by Office Products Inc. was becoming unstuck before it ever reached their customers. It seemed to Cal that he had checked out every possible source of the problem, from the type of glue to problems with the machinery. Writing was unpleasant for him; but still he had finished his report identifying glue as the problem, when he heard that the engineers had discovered a problem with the machinery. That was the last thing he wanted to hear. Surely it couldn’t be related.

What would you have done in Cal’s place? Of course, it’s pretty obvious what the right thing to do is in this case. Cal had to investigate this new development; otherwise, his report could have been embarrassingly wrong. To keep his boss informed, he wrote a short memo explaining what had happened and proposing a new submission date for the report.

Knowing what the right thing to do is, and doing it, are often not the same thing. You have probably been in enough similar situations yourself to know how hard it is to make yourself do the right thing! The next time this happens, remind yourself how powerful information can be and how important it is for you to be in sure command of the fact.

When Information Gathering Is Not Appropriate

There are times when it’s not appropriate to go out and collect more information. Most of those times come under the heading of “fish or cut bait”; this is usually when the information gathering has been dragging on too long and it is time to continue.

Andre is a classic example. His boss asked him to find out why customers were rejecting shipments of one of the company’s specialty products at a high rate. Andre realized that this presented him with an excellent opportunity to help the company and his own career at the same time, so he put a lot of time and energy into this investigation and analysis. He missed his boss’s first deadline because he felt he didn’t have sufficient information. And then he missed the second, for the same reason, and then the third.

Luckily, Andre’s boss was observant and diagnosed a bad case of cold feet. Andre knew that a lot was riding on his performance, and he wanted to do the best job that he could. When a deadline rolled around, all he could think of were the weaknesses in his report. He was afraid that was all his boss would see too. So he told himself that some more research would make it better. Doing more research was Andre’s way of putting off the inevitable scrutiny his report would receive once it was submitted.

Unfortunately, it is a tactic that doesn’t work well if it’s repeated. Some people are lucky enough to have a boss who helps them through their first traumas, but many are not. The general rule in business, in such cases, is: Get it done; hand it in; and move on.

Knowing when it’s time to stop (or when it’s time to do more research) is an art. There are no hard and fast rules, but people will expect you to perform well anyhow. Here are two things to look for when you are trying to decide whether you have done enough research.

Look for a pattern in yourself. You may get close to submitting your work and then pull back, telling yourself, “I’ve got to learn more about …” If you believe your work behavior fits this pattern, consider these steps. First, organize your work in a more disciplined way so that you collect the information you need when you need it, not at the end of a project. Second, realize you are a procrastinator. Recognizing the telltale signs that you are procrastinating may help you control that behavior.

When your boss wants your work handed in, you have to do it. If there is a serious and genuine need to collect more information, make the case (succinctly) to your boss.

FIGURING OUT WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW

Sometimes people get stuck at the beginning of the research process because they don’t know what they need to investigate. One sure way to waste time is to start researching before you know what you want to find out. Think back to Jorge Silva. He was in a new job, in a new company; he could have spent weeks learning all kinds of things about the company without getting one step closer to solving his problem.

Luckily, Jorge’s boss suggested that he contact Alice, a woman who had been with Modern Furniture for a long time and was a gold mine of information. Alice told Jorge she would be glad to help, but was pressed for time. She reminded him that she couldn’t deal with the technicalities of telecommunications, and suggested that Jorge write down three or four questions and send them to her. She said she would call back later with a response.

For one whole day, Jorge sat at his new desk, stumped. The more he told himself that he had deadlines to meet, the blanker his mind went.

Remember the W Questions

Then Jorge remembered a course he had taken in his last job, where he learned about the W questions. He wrote the Ws out on a piece of paper (see Chapter 4 for a reminder). Soon he was scribbling some specific questions on the paper: Who are the showroom managers? What are they upset about? Why did they wait until now to voice their complaints? Where are the files containing the documents relevant to the new telecommunications system? After he had covered his paper with questions, he sat back in his chair and asked himself how Alice could be most useful to him. He decided, given the short deadline he had, that she could help him most by giving him information that pointed him in the right direction for more specific research. Jorge’s list consisted of the following questions:

1.   What is the history of the relationship between the showroom managers and my division?

2.   Why are we hearing about the managers’ complaints now, after the purchase has been made?

3.   Among the managers, to whom should I talk in order to get to the heart of the problem quickly?

Start with the General, Then Get Specific

Jorge’s approach was based on sound logic. He needed to save time by making sure he talked to the right people, and went to the right places, the first time. So he asked Alice to give him a quick orientation to the company and then tell him where to go to get more specific and useful information.

If he had tried to get Alice to answer some very specific questions he would have been wasting her time and his. For example, Alice had told him she was not technical. So if Jorge had asked Alice to describe the aspects of the new voice mail system that the managers disliked, she could not have helped and probably would have resented the question.

Equally important, Jorge phrased his questions to be somewhat leading, inviting Alice to help him understand the background if she were willing. In this way, Jorge hoped to find out who the key actors were and what were their issues. In this way, he could focus on the critical people and issues immediately.

RESEARCH METHODS: HOW TO FIND OUT WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

The term research scares some people, but don’t be put off by it. Research is simply another name for collecting information in a systematic way. Once you have formulated your questions (what you need to know), the next step is finding the answers.

In most business research, there are two basic methods for collecting the information you need. When Jorge talked to Alice, he found out about both of them. When Alice called Jorge, she first congratulated him on formulating his questions carefully. Then she gave him some historical background: The showroom managers had been angry for a while. They believed that the corporate office was trying to restrict their ability to cut deals locally and had been resentful when a new telecommunications system was imposed on them. Alice suggested two things: First, talk to Karen, Jim, and Vicky—the three leaders among the showroom managers—and second, find and read the results of the telecommunications survey that all the managers had completed before the new system was bought.

As Alice indicated, there are two ways of collecting information. They are:

1.   Talking to people. Some people call this networking.

2.   Researching pertinent documents and data. (Note that these documents may be on paper, in electronic form, or on film.)

Networking for Information

Networking (or talking to people) is the first of the two ways to collect information. Networking means using your contacts and making new ones to find out things you need to know to achieve your goal—in this case, to define and solve problems. You’ll probably find that networking leads you to more useful information than researching documents does. That’s because most of the up-to-date information in modern organizations is inside people’s heads. Things change so rapidly in modern organizations that written documents fall out-of-date very quickly. You’ll also find that much of the important information in your organization has never been written down—and probably never will be.

Think about Jorge Silva. He started his research by talking with Alice. She was able to tell him things that weren’t written anywhere (the recent history of bad relations between the showroom managers and corporate headquarters; which showroom managers were influential). This information enabled Jorge to tackle his problem quickly and efficiently. Can you think of examples of important information in your organization that is not written down anywhere?

Jorge was lucky to find out about Alice so quickly. Most of us will have to put a little more work into identifying the key people who can help us answer our questions in our organizations. The best way to find these key people is to ask good questions, which requires (1) that the question be asked in such a way that the person you are questioning knows what you are trying to find out and (2) that the question be asked in such a way that the other person feels comfortable supplying that information.

Here are several sample questions. Which of them fulfill the two requirements just cited?

1.   Would you please help me? My boss has asked me to find the person in the receiving department who logs in things. We’re having a problem with one of our suppliers.

2.   Who’s in charge of security here? There have been serious violations, and heads are going to roll, believe me.

3.   Can you help me find someone to talk to? I have to solve this problem, and I don’t know what to do.

It’s pretty easy to pick out the effective question. It’s the first one because it has the following characteristics:

•   It’s specific (asks who in the receiving department logs in things).

•   It explains why the question is being asked (“we’re having a problem with one of our suppliers”). Note that this explanation is primarily for courtesy and is not detailed.

•   It is pleasant (“would you please”) but firm (“my boss has asked me to”).

The second question certainly is not pleasant, and it doesn’t give an explanation. In the third question, the questioner is too meek and too vague.

Identifying key people probably will be an ongoing process. The first person you talk to will tell you about two more. One of those people will lead you to a valuable informant, who in turn will tell you about another, and so on.

Before you actually make contact, there’s one crucial step: Make sure that you are acting with your boss’s approval. For example, Carl wasn’t surprised to get a call from Joan Schmidt, the director of accounting, because they had established a cordial relationship this past year. But he was surprised when Joan told him why she was calling. She wanted to know why somebody from Carl’s staff was snooping around her department, asking questions, and looking in files. Carl apologized hastily and promised it would never happen again. How would you have felt if you had been in Carl’s place? What would you have said to the snooping staff person?

Policies concerning how to communicate with people in other departments vary from one organization to another. Be sure you know what is expected in your organization. One good rule of thumb is to get explicit authorization from your boss whenever you network for problem solving among people who do not report to your boss.

Don’t rely on the fact that your boss knows you are investigating a problem. She may not be expecting you to question staff in other departments. Of course, many managers have established policies that give blanket authorization to staff to pursue certain kinds of problems into other departments. Staff know they can count on these managers to back them up if a problem arises.

Once you and your boss have agreed on the names (or position titles) of the people you are going to talk to, there are several standard ways to contact the identified key people: in person, on the phone, and in writing. Contacting people personally is less formal than requesting an appointment in writing. Jorge Silva, for example, knew that maintaining good relations with the showroom managers was essential for his future success. So he used the telephone to contact the three managers. He knew he could use the warmth of his voice to convince the managers that he was trying to help solve the telecommunications problem, not to escalate the conflict between corporate and showroom staff.

However, Jorge used a memo to request a meeting with the attorney who had advised Modern Furniture during the telecommunications purchase. Jorge wanted to review a number of legal documents, and he also had specific questions he wanted to put to the attorney. This was too much to handle over the telephone, so Jorge put the request in writing and gave a copy to his boss.

If you are unsure about company etiquette regarding phoning versus writing, ask your boss what is appropriate. Remember that you are going to ask these people to help you, something they may be disinclined to do if approached improperly.

The prospect of meeting people and asking them questions appeals to some of us, especially those of us with good “people skills.” For others, it can be somewhat intimidating.

The people you will be talking to also will vary widely in their people skills. Some will be pleased to have a chance to explain their work to an interested listener. Others may be a little fearful. (“Why is this person coming to ask me all these questions? Have I done something wrong?”)

Employers stress that they want their staff to use their best people skills and remain courteous when questioning people for problem solving. It doesn’t help them if you find the missing invoices but antagonize an entire department. Follow these guidelines for success: Be specific, explain why you are there, and be pleasant.

If all this sounds a little daunting, here is an incentive to persevere. Networking to solve problems for your organization can be a real advantage for your career. Networking is a key career advancement skill in itself, and you will either be learning or polishing this skill. Moreover, you will be expanding your network in an advantageous context: one that shows your intelligence and commitment to the company.

Finally, it’s worth noting that more and more organizations are reorganizing around the team concept, in which staff (often from different departments) are given responsibilities that formerly belonged to individual managers or supervisors. Teams seem to be the way of the future, and they put a premium on the very communication skills you will be perfecting here.

Researching Documents

Documents are another important source of information. In general, they will provide “harder” information than the “soft” information that comes from people. In Jorge’s case, Alice gave him soft information, such as the ongoing conflict between corporate headquarters and showroom managers.

To supplement such information, Jorge located and read several important documents. One was the results of a survey filled out by all showroom managers, in which each manager indicated his or her preferences for the new telecommunications system. Jorge could use this hard information in his meetings with the managers who were now complaining about the system. In addition, Jorge studied the contract signed between Modern Furniture and the telecommunications firm. It was a bulky document that described the new system in detail. Jorge learned from the contract that Modern’s new system had many more attractive features than the showroom managers knew.

Relevant documents vary from industry to industry and organization to organization. If your organization is fortunate enough to have a library or archive, by all means talk to the person in charge. Learn what the useful documents are and how to use them.

In the absence of a library, you’ll have to do some detective work. When you are networking, ask your contacts to tell you about relevant documents. They’ll be impressed with your initiative. And many of them will enjoy telling you about their special knowledge.

Take notes. You may think you will remember, but unless you have a photographic memory, you won’t. Besides, most businesspeople believe that note-taking is a sign of intelligence and will respond supportively.

In some cases, you will find that published written materials (books, magazines, newspapers, etc.) are also pertinent. Libraries are the best place to look for relevant publications. If you are not familiar with standard business sources, ask your local librarian to introduce you to the basic reference materials. Even if you don’t find materials strictly relevant to the problem at hand, remember that it is virtually impossible to visit a library without learning something interesting.

Whatever written materials you end up using, you will find them helpful in a couple of ways. First, they will give you a written context for interpreting the information you get from the people in your company. Very often, something that seems like an isolated incident (your company is trying to adjust to new accounting software) is part of a larger picture (your company is implementing new accounting standards that are being mandated for your entire industry).

Second, written materials can often provide you with an objective basis for evaluating the things you learn from company insiders. Thus Jorge Silva was able to use the company survey of showroom managers to evaluate the complaint that the showroom managers had not been consulted on the purchase of a new telecommunications system. It turned out that not only had they been consulted, but also they had been listened to, and Jorge could prove it.

In summary, written materials are valuable in the information-gathering process as a context for interpretation and as an objective basis for evaluation.

A final note of caution: There is an understandable human tendency to put more credence in the written than the spoken word. The mere fact that information appears in writing, whether in a company report or a major news journal, doesn’t mean that it is true.

Learning how to gather information is an essential part of good problem solving. Some business people believe that they know enough to solve problems without doing research, but additional information will almost always help you diagnose and solve problems. One exception is procrastination, or putting off deadlines.

In business settings there are two basic ways to gather information: talking to knowledgeable people and reading pertinent documents. Knowing how to network for information is an important business skill (and one that will help your career) because so much up-to-date information about business operations can only be found inside people’s heads. Written documents are also important, however, especially to provide objective facts.