I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.’ Yahoo. Internet Explorer. Google. Ecosia. Safari. Firefox. Bing. were all supposed to solve this for us. And while we have more information at our fingertips than ever before in history and the information is organised better than ever, we still can’t find what we are looking for.

This is true of the internet, but also most organisations we are a part of. Information is everywhere, we just can’t find what we are looking for. Sometimes this is the ‘system’s’ fault – it is badly managed, structured, or has a poor search function. But often it is other things

Sometimes we are just lazy. Our search results don’t have what we want on the first page. (Who ever looks at page two of their google search result?) We are used to instantaneous gratification and when we don’t achieve it in our search for information, we can give up easily and blame the system.

Sometimes we just have bad managers and colleagues. When we are new to organisations and systems, we should be pointed to where things are by our managers and colleagues. When this doesn’t happen we can’t find what we need. We flounder. Not because of ourselves or the system, but because we haven’t been shown the way.

Systems are easy to blame. But often they are the scapegoat for a more human problem.

Photo by Marten Newhall