Data versus information

[ImprovingExcellence]

Dear Arno,
My name is Tim Ivanov (Russia, Unilever). I participated at the TPM in SD training happened in Leioa (Spain). Could you please clarify for me what are the main differences between data and information. Thanks in advance, Tim

[Arno Koch]

Hi Tim!

Thank you for your question! Let me try to give some explanation.

If you write a report, it is completely data, until someone responds -takes action- to one or more of the items in the report. Those parts than become INFORMATION.

Information is data that is being responded to.

The challenge now is to create reports that invite to fully respond to.
One way would be to eliminate all redundant parts (the data, the parts that are not being responded to) Another - preferred- way would be to transform the report in a way that the data you present invites to respond to.

I suggest to start interviewing the user of the report (or form or whatever it is you produce) and ask what he or she needs and specially in what form: many times the same numbers presented in a different way change the behavior of the reader and thus make him or her respond!

Don't hesitate to leave other questions in the forum!

Best regards
Arno