Picture this: you’ve just been assigned a big project at work on a topic you know nothing about. There’s a massive amount of information to wrangle, and you’re not sure where to begin. Feeling overwhelmed, you may retreat into the details of your work, spending your time on minutiae where you still have some hope of control. But will your efforts pay off if you’re not sure you’re asking the right question? How can you get back to the big picture and move forward with the project as a whole?
When most of us think of making sense of information in a professional setting, we think of neat rows of numbers on a spreadsheet, ready to be analyzed and plugged into a waiting blank space on a report draft or PowerPoint slide. But more often than not, our experiences with information in the workplace are messier than that. We’re often faced with loose tidbits of knowledge, difficult to quantify and difficult to organize into meaning. Even if we can manage to cobble our sources together into something coherent, we may soon realize our findings are less relevant to the task at hand than we thought, leaving us struggling to incorporate what we’ve learned into our deliverable.
One solution to this all-too-common predicament may be to shift our focus away from the information itself. This may seem counterintuitive, but taking a step back can allow us to see the broader context of what we’re trying to accomplish and how our sources can help us meet our goals.
In the workplace, information is generally a means to an end, and rarely an end in and of itself. Looking only at the fine print with no end goal in mind can make it easy to lose
direction. Whether you’re already involved with a project or looking to take on something new, asking yourself a few key questions before you dive into the thick of your analysis can help you keep on track.
1. Am I asking the right question?
As much as we want the information we have to answer our target question, the two don’t always match up. Even if they do, we may miss key points if we’re fixed on taking the wrong approach. Consider deeper levels of information your sources may contain, such as their potential biases or limited scope, and how that affects the answers they can provide. The most important piece of information a source has to offer may not be what first occurs to you to look for, and the overall message may be totally separate from the information itself.
2. Who cares about this information? Why do they care?
Chances are you’re not putting this all together just for yourself. Who depends on this information to be clear and accurate? What will it help them do? What might the impact be for them if your information is unclear or incomplete, and how can you communicate what you’ve learned to prevent potential hiccups?
3. What limitations might my information have?
Be wary of making claims your information won’t support. Recognizing the limitations of your sources early on will help you create a more cohesive, sound end project. It may also help you realize where your information is lacking and can be supplemented with additional sources.
4. How will I know when enough is enough?
Nearly every professional endeavor comes with a deadline. In a perfect world, you might have endless time to research and tweak until everything is perfect. In reality, however, you’ll have to draw the line somewhere, and it’s better to draw it on your own terms. Consider where to focus your efforts. What leniencies might be acceptable, and which can you not allow? Think about where you’ll start to reach the point of diminishing returns with your information and adjust accordingly.
5. What claims am I hoping to be able to make? What’s the best way to present my information to get my message across?
While it’s important not to allow any kind of internal bias to impact your analysis, you should have some idea of what you’re looking for before you get into the thick of things.
Supporting your claims may mean presenting information that is subjective or difficult to quantify. How will you make sure that your presentation is both fair and compelling?
It’s important to remember that this is a process, not a one-time checklist. Reflection on your experience will be needed to do better next time, and it may take a considerable amount of practice to learn the informational needs of a new field or workplace. Making sense of information is ultimately about learning how to identify the information that suits your needs and put it to good use. It can be a tricky process, but if you can manage it, you’ll be that much closer to making sense of the world around you and honing what you’ve learned into new, actionable outcomes—and when that big project comes, you’ll be able to tackle it one step at a time.