Information, Inventory and Knowledge
Toyota made the just-in-time style of inventory management world famous: all the pieces came together exactly when they were needed. Which sounds like common sense at first: after all, if the pieces came earlier than they were needed, you had to find a place to store them (that costs money and could lead to excess inventory); and if they came later, well, you were going to be late. What Toyota really gets the credit for is for having devised (and executed) a system that managed to achieve this in real life. Shane Parrish points out that we’ve now taken the same just-in-time approach towards information: “We really seek out signal is when we need it the most: right before we make a decision.” Which of course can be very dangerous: you act based on what you get your hands on instead of trying to get the big picture. And you don’t have the time to reflect or analyze thoroughly. On the positive side, Parrish points out that: “If we can’t connect the current situation to somet...