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You can always make the case that you need more data. One more statistic, an additional assessment, get the facts – there’s always more out there.
When do you make the case for making an improved decision? “We throw piles of data at people,” a leader shared. “What we lack is knowledge.”
Being data rich and knowledge poor is not a pathway to improved performance.
The temptation is to call some meetings, discuss the numbers, and see where people want to go. “And when we do that,” the same leader added, “We get exponentially more ideas and proposals than the number of meetings we held on the subject. Which means we need more meetings.”
The question isn’t whether to include people in the decision making. It’s how to include, how to leverage people. It’s worth discussing with your team:
– What type of data would inform better and quicker decisions?
– How much data do we need before we act?
– As we assess the numbers, what organizational knowledge must we develop?
– What knowledge do we need to develop so we can be more agile?
– What’s our plan to use data to make faster and more effective decisions?
The exercise of collecting and assessing data creates the illusion of progress. But success doesn’t come to those who know where they’ve been. It’s those who have the courage to go make new data points who will win.
Data rich and knowledge poor is a very good statement but sometimes collecting data does not always “fix” or help the scenario. Getting people involved and letting them be a part of decision making is very important.
Mark – thanks for sharing this important comment. Tapping into others’ motivations by involving them is a key to success. Thanks for this reminder and here’s to your leadership!