Happy New Year from Alaska! 2025 couldn’t have started in a more beautiful fashion as I gazed upon the northern lights in the early morning hours on January 1st and inspired this blog. This display of red lights is very uncommon in the northern hemisphere and made this light show more spectacular than the typical ‘dance’ of green lights across the sky.
Just as the northern lights paint the sky with their exquisite dance, information, when managed effectively, can light up human potential and lead us to new horizons of achievement and innovation.
Nature’s blueprint: Ingenious inventions that represent the wild
There are countless examples of how human innovation represent nature. The airplane’s design represents the flight of birds, harnessing the principles of lift, thrust, and aerodynamics. The concept of the umbrella finds its roots in the shape of trees, translating this natural canopy into a portable form for human use. Artificial intelligence simulates the human mind by simulating cognitive abilities like learning, reasoning, problems-solving, and decision-making. Information management is no different and as is analogous to the northern lights, or aurora borealis.
An analogy between the Northern Lights and information management
The northern lights (and southern lights in the Southern Hemisphere) occur when charged particles from the sun interact with Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere, creating a breathtaking display of light. Here’s how this natural phenomenon mirrors information management software technology.
Sun burst = Corporate strategy & initiatives: The sun’s burst of energy represents a company’s annual release of corporate strategies and initiatives. This release of energy is focused in a specific direction that acts as a guide for employees and other stakeholders.
Electrons = Employees setting out to execute the strategy: Sun bursts release an abundance of electrons that carry this energy toward earth. Just like the sun emits electrons into space, companies send their team members out into the business world to execute their roles and contribute toward the progress of its strategic initiatives.
Oxygen molecules = Structured information: Just as earth’s atmosphere is made up of about 20% oxygen, only about 20% of the information team members use is neatly organized in rows, columns, and tabs. By definition, structured data is organized. It’s also easily accessible and manageable forming the backbone of many business operations.
Nitrogen molecules = Unstructured information: Earth’s atmosphere is made up of about 80% nitrogen, and best represents the vast amount of information we use on a daily basis that doesn’t easily fit into a box and conventional databases. Examples include but not limited to documents, conversations, videos, and the hidden insights in any dataset. Just as nitrogen is often overshadowed by oxygen and the critical role it plays in earth’s ecosystem, unstructured information plays a critical role in any business process and business ecosystem.
Excited electrons = Employees + Information: When electrons reach earth’s atmosphere and collide with oxygen and nitrogen molecules the electrons reach an ‘excited state’ with a higher energy level. Likewise, as employees are equipped with trusted, autonomous, and secure information that they need to successfully execute their roles, their productive potential rises. Few things are more motivating than having the right information at the right time to successfully execute your role.
Northern lights = Progress toward strategic goals and initiatives: The excited electrons release the absorbed energy in the form of light. It’s one of the most spectacular sights and is celebrated by viewers. Likewise, making progress toward strategic goals is also a remarkable sight and celebrated by organizations.
As we navigate through this information-rich era, the challenge and opportunity lie in harnessing this wealth of data. By utilizing information management technologies and best practices, we can ensure that every individual and organization is elevated to be their best. In essence, we’re all just a bunch of electrons. Provide your organization with the right information at the right time and we all have a lot of light to give.
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