Information is anything that reduces situational uncertainty about what’s going on or what might happen next. Information can come from what people say (verbal communication), how they say it (nonverbal and paraverbal communication), what they do, and what we notice in our own experience. What counts as information – what reduces uncertainty in which way – depends on what participants already know, expect, and understand about the situation.
In collaboration and conflict, information helps you wayfind. You use it to express and clarify views, reveal differences, change expectations, and open or close possibilities for what happens next – all of which help you orient, navigate, and routefind. As you and colleagues act on what you understand, you also change the information field – which makes information something we handle and continually produce.
This definition draws on two traditions – Claude Shannon’s information theory and J. L. Austin and John Searle’s speech act theory. The first establishes a relationship between information and uncertainty (originally in telecommunication systems). The second shows how communication can both describe situations and change situations. (A promise doesn’t merely describe someone’s intention – it creates a commitment. A refusal doesn’t merely signal disagreement – it can close off a proposed course of action.)
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