The hamster revolution - Mike Song

Written in parable form, the work relates the story of Harold, an HR Director, who has fallen victim to thedreaded clutches of info-glut and finds himself paralyzed and unable to move forward because of the delugeof electronic data and e-mail he must fight daily. In a Kafka-esque twist, after such repetitive but fruitlessexertion, he actually turns into a hamster running on a hamster wheel, though he's too busy to even notice.Harold meets the info-coach who recognizes his ailment and teaches him a few effective lessons aboutmanaging e-mail - key to which is developing higher quality while getting rid of unwanted excess. The infocoachintroduces the COTA system to Harold, which shows him an innovative way of storing all e-mail andelectronic media into four main categories:1. Clients2. Output3. Teams4. AdministrativeUsing this system Harold is able to control his e-mail communications and documents again, and turns backfrom a hamster into a human being.There is also the story of the groundbreaking Capital One study based on feedback and input from 2,000Capital One employees who attended a workshop by the authors. A 60-day post-training survey found e-mailquality to have improved by 52% while e-mail volume decreased by 21%. Capital One estimates that theparticipants saved an astounding 13 days per year because of this.All in all, the book provides a large amount of fun, but poignant information that can be used to reorganizeemail procedure into an efficient, and effective endeavor.