Is Scanning Important for Knowledge Workers?
Scanning tasks are those where you stay up-to-speed on a topic. Likely as you read this post, you are scanning. You are seeing it in an RSS reader or via someone’s link. You didn’t arrive via search looking to find information that answers a specific question. Rather, you are participating in a continuous knowledge work / learning activity.
Common scanning methods are:
- Subscribing to magazines, journals or other publications
- Subscribing to email distribution lists, newsletters, etc.
- Subscribing to blogs
- Subscribing to searches, alerts, or other topic trackers
- Attending conferences or other professional meetings
- Participating in forums / discussion groups
- Conversations with peers can be a form of scanning
- Twitter can be scanning
- Blogging can be used as a part of scanning practices
Scanning is very important to me and occupies a fair amount of my time. I consider it essential to staying on the forefront. When I begin to work with a new client, I often set up various scanning activities for me to be in a continuous learning mode around their world.
But what has struck me recently, is that it feels like the “average knowledge worker” doesn’t actually do much scanning as it relates to their work?
What’s your impression - do knowledge workers scan?
If the answer is “Very Little” or “Sporadically” then the problem we face is that they don’t scan because they don’t consider it all that important. Thus,
Does it make sense for us to expose them to all these additional scanning methods?
I’ve been showing knowledge workers how an RSS reader can be a great scanning tool and how you can wire in several of the above information sources. But, if scanning is really not important to them, then
Is an RSS reader is pretty much irrelevant to the average Knowledge Worker?
Another reason for these questions is that when I went to define a scenario that would help people identify common knowledge work activities, for most of the scenarios I came up with scanning didn’t seem important. Scanning is important over a longer period of time when you want sustain information flow. But most common scenarios, you need immediate answers. In those cases searching is the dominant information acquisition method. So,
Is an understanding of modern scanning methods important for knowledge workers?
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June 19th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Scanning is essential in any knowledge area where there is fairly constant change. Your first line in the list is for the traditional paper scanning. One of the best profs I had in my post-grad studies made everyone in his classes read Adler’s & Van Doren’s “How to Read a Book”. It’s essentially how to scan in the print world, and was very helpful. (So is Nielsen’s “Reading on the Web” - http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html)
The tricky part of your question is that paper resources and conferences are simply not enough anymore, but many people don’t know HOW to scan on the web. (Sometimes they don’t even know that they don’t know. I would think that RSS readers would be essential for journalists, but many look at me blankly when I ask whether they follow different papers or news sites online.)
When I present to people who are fairly passive web users (searching & reading static sites) I begin by showing them how handy social bookmarking is, and how RSS readers can give them useful sources to keep up-to-date. When I presented to the Editors’ Association last month, I added a few other possibilities and gave them this take away - http://www.slideshare.net/vinall/social-web-430699, hoping that it would help.
So my answer is, knowledge workers very much need to know how to scan, ’cause if they’re knowledge workers of any sort, they’re in a rapidly changing field, and they need to know how to keep up.
June 20th, 2008 at 12:36 am
I find that scanning and searching are connected to different perspectives on a subject. For an outside-in perspective I scan, trying to see the patterns in what ‘everybody’ says about something. This perspective is driven by my need to make sense of my environment.
The second perspective, my inside-out perspective, is driven by my goals and tasks and tangible questions I have pertaining to them. Then I search.
Those that scan only a bit of their time are the ones that focus/are forced to focus on the very short term. Scanning is not needed for the task at hand, so they search.
I find that clients/colleagues that feel they are always running behind the facts and therefore try and focus on the tasks at hand are making it worse by cutting down on their scanning. It’s like driving a car: looking further ahead (scanning) is more effective than trying to steer the car by just looking at the few centimeters of road immediately in front of it.
June 20th, 2008 at 8:15 am
I think that scanning is indispensable to knowledge workers, but I agree with Joan that most don’t know that they don’t know. I have been giving talks recently on PLEs, RSS readers and social bookmarks to our employees as a way to improve their professional and personal learning. Most have never heard of RSS but when shown, immediately begin to see the importance. Most are familiar with older scanning techniques with periodicals and e-newsletters. They are impressed with the power of RSS and once over the hump of learning how to master the “magic in the box” take to it with vigor and passion.
Personally, I use scanning for both short-term and long-term needs. If I have a specific question or problem, the first thing I do is run a del.icio.us RSS on the term. I then skim-dive-skim to find relevant links, typically using the del.icio.us rankings to gauge importance and relevance. Soon enough a web of information emerges that helps me to attack the problem. For the longer term, I simply monitor my set of feeds to stay abreast of the latest developments in a particular area.
June 20th, 2008 at 8:35 am
I’ll join the scanning chorus. One obstacle may be that scanning typically has little direct connection to the work at hand. Ton’s distinction between “scan” and “search” makes sense here.
A lot of people search on the job — trying to figure out what “lean six sigma” or “vendor-managed inventory” or “SOAP” means, for example. They’ve got some immediate need, a (typically small) gap to close. Search here is like planning a dinner party and deciding on a menu when you want to try all new things.
Scanning as a habit is like regular exercise. No one trip to the gym is going to make any real difference — it’s the habit. You can get better at scanning, just as you can learn to work out more effectively. But the person who gets to the gym three times a week, doing nothing more that walking on the treadmill, over time will develop far more fitness than the same person will without that level of practice.
To adapt my own saying about best practices, everyone’s baptized in the religion of fitness, but not many people go to church.
June 20th, 2008 at 10:30 am
I think the one element left out of the above discussion is the time factor. Scanning is essential for a knowledge worker but this same worker can be innudated with the day-to-day aquiring of knowledge related specifically to job function which leaves little time for scanning. I agree with Dave that the worker will scan for tidbits of information needed at the moment but time for scanning is generally left up to the person who will be the expert in the field and needs to stay up to the minute on informaiton.
June 20th, 2008 at 11:07 am
What I hear is that scanning is like exercise, eating right, vitamins, etc. It’s good for you, but you probably don’t do it. Time is primary reason not to - but likely you are making choices all the time about relative importance.
Is that fair?
Do we try to change that attitude?
Nancy - do you try to change that attitude?
June 20th, 2008 at 11:14 am
It seems to me that really you are talking about two things here. I think of what you described as “monitoring”, keeping up through blogs, journals, emails, list serves, with the trends.
I think of scanning as more “browsing” through content to see what peeks our interest. I think of it like going to a book store and just picking up a book that is of interest that perhaps you didn’t think of reading through, jotting down for future reference, perhaps going a head and buying (downloading) for future reference or when you have time to really read it.
Searching is looking for specific information (in the book store analogy, going to look for a book whose title, author, or subject you have in mind, perhaps, finding related books but going with a specific purpose in mind).
I think that each has its own purpose for a knowledge worker. Most “monitor” to stay abreast of trends, but this is usually superficial in terms of depth of learning. “Scanning” is used for personal interest and often requires some free time. “Searching” looks for specific information as needed as Nancy points out.
June 20th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Virginia - in my terminology “monitor” is part of “scanning”. But I like how you are differentiating different parts of scanning activities and really different methods, skills, etc.
Do you really think that most “monitor” to stay abreast of trends? My sense is more in line with Nancy.
June 20th, 2008 at 11:53 am
I think that Virginia brings up a good point about terminology.
To me, “scanning” implies how I read something (i.e., I “scan” a document to find relevant information, as opposed to reading it more deeply). But I’m scanning either a document that I found through “monitoring” (i.e., a Google Alert, an RSS feed) or I’m scanning something I found through search. Tony, it looks like you use “scan” in the sense of doing an environmental scan. Language may make a difference, though, in how we communicate with people about this stuff. We may need to get a better idea of the words they’d use to describe these behaviors.
Nancy’s point about time is an important one, but it also points to what I think might be another essential work literacy skill–prioritizing. As Ton points out, “scanning” or “monitoring” or whatever you call it is a longer-term kind of activity, while searching is more immediate and focused. Short-term activities are about survival in the day -to-day (important), while longer-term activities are about planning and growing for the future (also important). Figuring out how to balance your time between shorter-term “search” kinds of activities and longer-term monitoring is essential to success, too.
June 20th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
I picked up the term from various folks in the PKM space. I believe the word is used a bit like “scanning the horizon” … but I hear your concern on the preconception that we are talking about scanning in a similar context to skimming.
I’m open to other terms for these types of tasks. Suggestions?
June 20th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
“Scan” works for me; it implies a searching, like a radar scan or the horizon scan. Quick reading is skimming, though I suppose skimming could be part of how you scan.
One blip on my radar, by the way, is a question like “Do we try to change that attitude?” Whose attitude are you trying to change? And has that person actually asked to be changed?
Going back to the fitness or healthy eating analogy, what successful approaches are going to get the non-exerciser to work out more? The unhealthy eater to adopt new patterns?
Another perspective: if as you say the average knowledge worker doesn’t do much scanning, yet presumably keeps on doing whatever that knowledge work is, is it possible that scanning activities are ones some knowledge workers prefer?
June 21st, 2008 at 4:55 am
From my experience of teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate courses on information management I am constantly surprised how few students know what RSS is and how it can be used to keep updated on a range of topics. Spending an hour or two doing some practical exercises with them generally results in most of them seeing the value in regularly using a news reader of some sort to track areas of interest. Generally, I think there is a real lack of understanding about the value of scanning and the tools that can be used to facilitate it - my research on information policy in the UK seems to support the notion that public policy has emphasised the importance of people and companies adopting new technologies such as PCs and the Internet but not really addressed the issue of how to make the most of the information that flows through these technologies.
There is certainly a lot of work to be done here which will keep a lot of us busy for some time to come.
June 21st, 2008 at 9:20 am
[...] Der Beitrag findet sich auf Work Literacy, einer noch jungen Diskussionsplattform, auf der eine Reihe von Experten genau solche Fragen diskutiert: “Work Literacy is a network of individuals, companies and organizations who are interested in learning, defining, mentoring, teaching and consulting on the frameworks, skills, methods and tools of modern knowledge work.” Spannend! Tony Karrer, Work Literacy, 19 Juni 2008 [...]
June 21st, 2008 at 10:37 am
Okay - so I’m not sure on the term Scan - with Dave adding “like a radar” it becomes more clearly activities that keep you abreast of a topic, field, etc. This is not a directed search - although I could certainly define a pattern that is periodically (there’s a time element here) searching for information (information inflow) and capturing it as a post or via social bookmarking (some kind of processing - often minimal). The purpose is to learn, stay up-to-speed, but is not trying to solve a specific problem. Does anyone particularly like “Radar”, “Monitor”, “Continuous Learning” or something else?
Of course, maybe a lot of this is moot …
Dave - you’ve somewhat captured my worry here. Showing someone how to use RSS doesn’t do any good if they don’t care about the information. Having it pile up in an RSS reader doesn’t do them any good.
Martin - in looking at Small Business behavior - is scanning important to them?
June 21st, 2008 at 10:44 am
As I’m thinking about this …
1. We probably should be trying to convince people that additional scanning makes sense, but …
2. I’m much more focused on making desired scanning behavior better, more efficient, etc.
This is also making me step back and ask the question - Why is the person scanning in the first place?
June 23rd, 2008 at 4:55 am
As far as SMEs goes there is not much research in this area. I am using the term “scanning” in the way that Michele describes above - “environmental scanning” where an effort is made to keep abreast of what is going on around you either in a specific area of interest or more generally with regard to the social, economic, political, technological environment.
Once piece of research I have come across is from Canada. ( http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-3235358/Environmental-scanning-in-globally-oriented.html ) . Perhaps not surprisingly, the research found that SMEs do not typically engage in systematic scanning that larger corporations may engage in but rather adopt a more informal approach. Sources of information used in their scanning reflects their relative lack of resources and include discussions with customers/suppliers and visits to trade shows.
However, (as the authors acknowledge) this research may not be relevant to SMEs in other countries. Also their sample was based on SMEs that did business globally and so they are not representive of most SMEs who will do business in their domestic market.
I am currently carrying out some research into British SMEs and how they use new Web services/technologies to find information and communicate. I am comparing SMEs operating in the new media/Internet sectors with a more general cross section of SMEs. Combining an online survey of several thousand SMEs with some follow-up interviews will, I hope, shine some light on how and why these companies look for and use information. If anyone wants to see an executive summary of the results once they are ready feel free to drop me an email.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:42 pm
I would think that SMEs would be the ones who could (if they thought it was important) get the greatest advantage by the reduced effort required for scanning. It fits somewhat with the suggestion that informal scanning is the norm for SMEs as compared to Large Enterprises.
Martin - I definitely would like to see what you find!