How much information is enough? That is the question that a recent blog post at INC Paradise prompted me to ask.

The blog entry describes a survey done by Business Objects and highlights the fact that only 11% of workers claim they "always have all of the information that they need to confidently make decisions." What the entry does not note is that a full 49% - almost half of those surveyed - have enough information "often".

This leaves me to wonder just how subjective the respondants were. All of the entries I found seem to believe there is a huge difference between 'often' and 'always'. And yet, honestly, when will you always have exactly what you need? More specifically, how long will it take you to gather all of that information? Ironically, the survey states "workers spend too much time verifying data", since in the US, we take an average of 12.1 hours per week verifying information.

So we have bad info to start with, and then we waste time verifying it?

Then, after all of that, most of us - 87% in the United States - have our information challenged by either colleagues or supervisors.

We start with bad information, which gets challenged, leading us to verify the information.

It sounds to me like the problem doesn't have to do with the information. The problem has to do with trust. It's no wonder we spend so much time on verification - either we don't do it right or the boss doesn't believe we've done it right in the first place.

What can we do about it?

First, accept that you will never have 100% of the information 100% of the time. Determine what the most important things you need to know are. Dig up as much as possible on them. Make note of any secondary information as you go along.

Second, create an environment where you have trust. This, of course, is the hard part. You have to have employees who you know will have found the right information. You have to have relationships where people will trust one another. To develop that, perhaps you will have to cite your sources.

Third, make sure everyone knows how to go about gathering information. You don't want to look in my personal blog to find out how female entrepeneurs feel about xyz. Instead, find a survey or a reputable source. Is there a problem with your service? Don't ask the guy in the cubicle next door; ask the one who handles the troubleshooting (okay, if that guy is in the cubicle next door, then you can ask him). As we said, you may have to start off by citing your sources to build the aforementioned trust, but over time, handle that trust.

In the fantastic book, Good to Great, author Jim Collins claims one of the most important steps in becoming a great company is to get the right people on the bus. You want people working for you who are excited and motivated. People who are happy to be there, who desire to help the company excel. People who love their job and want to do it right. Only with these sort of people can your employees develop trust with one another.

Information is important, but far more important, I think, is the issue of trust. If you can't trust your employees to do a good job, if you have to double and triple check their every move, then what is the point of having them do it? Either you are too anal or they have proven themselves slack; something has to change. Only then will we cut back on time wasted with fact checking.

For more information, check out Business Object's survey yourself.