You could learn a lot about content from Jason Bourne

The other night, I was watching "The Bourne Ultimatum" on television when something interesting struck me. What separated Jason Bourne from his CIA counterparts, who were chasing him, was his ability to find and process information (or content if you will) extremely quickly.

Sure, Bourne is a trained killing machine and an amazing driver. But as I watched, I realized a key to his success was his ability to maneuver his way through the complex maze that surrounded his life. That, in a sense, is similar to what surrounds every information worker in today's information-overload system. Bourne knew where to find information, whether it was a website or a map, he knew how to process it and he could put it into action very quickly. It occurred to me, as crazy as it sounds, that we all could actually learn a lot from the Bourne character.

Finding and processing information

We've always known that he or she who gathers and processes information the best has the key to success. The CIA employees in the movie know how how to look for information too, but because they are a large monolithic organization, they always seemed one step behind no matter how advanced and skilled the individuals in the organization might have been. Bourne, on the other hand, was like a small business, able to move quickly and lithely, using his superior intelligence and his information processing skills, and he could adjust and adapt on the fly as the circumstances dictated.

In one scene, he comes out of a hotel with the CIA and German police in hot pursuit. He knows to go to a public transportation map, which are located at bus stops all over Germany. He scans the map, reads the schedule (and understanding the legendary German public transportation punctuality), instantly formulates and carries out a plan to escape. If you as an employee could use information in this same fashion, you too could stay one step ahead of your competitors.

Sharing with your peers

One of the big problems with the CIA employees in the film was that for all their cunning and expertise, many tried to remain information silos, to hide their information from others for their own reasons. If the employees had been able to share information more freely, they could have helped one another, but espionage is about guarding and hoarding information. And this mentality also holds true inside many large organizations.

When employees share information in the fashion I described recently at Lockheed Martin (an organization that used to operate like the CIA operatives in the film), they found all kinds of good things happened. Even though they had previously hoarded information in silos (and in fact even the CIA is learning to share in better ways in real life), they learned there was much to gain by sharing information and breaking down the individual silos (whether personal or information).

Of course, I'm not suggesting that we all become cold-blooded killing machines, but we could all learn a lot from the Jason Bourne character about processing and acting on our information as quickly as possible. By managing our content effectively (and sharing it freely in the organization), we can learn to be quick on our feet like Bourne, and we might just be more effective employees as a result. - Ron

Editor's Note: I'll be heading out on vacation next week, and freelance technology writer Dee-Ann LeBlanc will be taking over for the next three weeks in my absence. Note that there will be no Editor's Corner while I'm gone, but you will continue to receive the rest of the great content.