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< Back
 The following is an
excerpt from the Herman Miller Research Summary: It’s
Here Somewhere: The Effects of Storage Methods on Job Performance (©2003).
Revaluate Storage
Reconsider the value of information
in the primary work zone. If it doesn’t support work done today,
tomorrow, or the next day, it may be better off somewhere else. Most
organizational experts’ first
recommendation is to get all archival storage and as much intermediate
storage as possible out of the workstation. Files, supplies, resource
materials, and anything else that is not used on a daily basis can also
be organized and stored more efficiently in another location. Time-management
consultant Jeffrey Mayer says that 60 to 80 percent of the papers he
clears from his clients’ desks can be filed in the wastebasket
with no ill effect. Some experts in the field of organizational behavior
and design advocate a general rethinking of the office that includes
relocating much of the filing that is duplicated from workstation to
workstation into shared libraries or resource centers. Many companies
have developed information systems that give employees access to archival
material through their computer, on shared servers or an intranet. And
still others offer off-site archival storage.
Rethink Collecting Strategies
David Kirsh, of the Department
of Cognitive Science at UC-San Diego, describes his theory of information
collectors, which includes just-incase accumulators who want it all and
plan to keep it forever. They expect to need it, someday. As a result,
information piles up with no limit, and the organizing and retrieving
strategies get more taxed.
There are also just-in-time accumulators, who get the information they
want when they need it and tend to discard it easily when finished. However,
their grasp of the material may be shallow, especially if it is information
that needs to be developed or understood over time. Waiting too long
to decide on an item’s value can backfire. Almost all of the 25
percent of materials purged by the group Whittaker and Hirschberg studied
was unprocessed information that had never been properly evaluated. ”
For the complete text of this research summary, please CONTACT Thomas
Interior Systems at info@thomasinterior.com |
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