Our Love Affair With Data Is Tragic

Most people at work have a love affair with data and analytics. They try to use data to solve their most pressing problems and issues at work. Their career path, the new strategy they want to implement, the Q3 goals. Yet they often fall short, always wondering why. Why cant they achieve their goals? Why cant they get where they want to go? Why do they always fall short?

We all have been promised the salvation of data would indeed solve all of our problems at work, and beyond, yet there are still problems at work. Still problems in our lives beyond work.

What the heck is going on?

If you ask the data companies, they say that redemption is only one upgrade away! We just need to pay for the latest license or hardware, and all will be better. If you ask employees, staff, or leadership they will tell you that making decisions has always been data driven. And that the data has worked in the past is that the data is how it has always been done. Follow the numbers and results will follow.

Yet the system is broken, and here’s why:

Data will only get us so far, no matter how good the quality, no matter how good it worked in the past. We need to bridge the gap between where the usefulness of the data ends and the meaningful completion of the task at hand begins. And that gap needs to be filled with creativity and innovation.

It’s not about abandoning the data, it’s about using it in harmony with creativity and innovation.

Here are three ways to forever fill that gap and marry the analytics and data with creativity and innovation.

Context Is Everything

What if I told you that a particular stock is down 12%. Upon first glance, that seems terrible. But without any context, that means close to nothing. Because the greater context would show that since you had purchased the stock it had gained 40%, and the 12% dip still has you up by 28%. It’s all about the context in buying or trading securities, and it’s all about the context in establishing analytics and data in your career or business.  

Context matters because it always puts the data to a real world test. Just because something may look good on paper doesn’t always mean it will look good in reality.

So the next time you are considering driving a new initiative that looks great on paper, get creative instead. Test drive it first in reality to make sure that it actually works out the way you want it to. Don’t rely on the data blindly, it will hide all kinds of things that happen in reality like operational friction, dissatisfaction among staff and human behavior factors.   

Apply the new direction that you’d like to try based on the data set to a small sector and see if it works. Ask questions that are unexpected around the initiative to see if it really is meaningful. And get creative about what the results may show in real life, not just on paper, because that may take you on an unexpected journey to find real meaning.

Balance The Data With Non - Data Perspective

This one freaks people out. When I ask people to balance the data, on one hand, with a non-data perspective, the predictable outcome is one of true discomfort. What do you mean balance the data with a non data perspective! Isn’t that counter intuitive?

Yes indeed it is. And that’s the whole point.

When you balance the data with a non data perspective, you get real results that live outside of your spreadsheet. For example, getting creative with the interpretation of the data will allow you to make judgements on the data set with what you know exists in real life. 

I have had the privilege to work with a lot of frontline retail folks lately, and often times the data shows things that are so incompatible with what the front line are seeing that it is laughable. Things like items sold or time of sale may show a robust metric of profitability. That store is dong great – right? Yet the data fails to capture customer experience. Sure the numbers may be high, but so is customer frustration, confusion finding products, or a rude sales staff that is a turn off for customers in one way or another.

When we balance the data with non data perspectives, we get a creative and innovative look at what is really going on that completes the picture. And allows us to then take decisive action on the whole picture.

Reality Is Complex

Things that look great with data often do not translate to real life. There is a gap there that must be filled with creativity in order for the data set to marry with creativity to actually work in real life.

The Segway personal mobility story is a classic example. 

The metrics had shown that it would revolutionize personal mobility and usher in an era that moved away from cars, trucks and trains carrying people around their commute. What could possibly go wrong? Well, reality is complex. In the real world it was dang awkward. Users looked kind of silly riding on it, funny movies about mall cops were made using the scooter, and it quickly vanished into the annals of history.

Reality is far more complex that we know. Reality has more variables than any software of system can track – yes even AI. And reality has the data set changing every minute. If you don’t believe me, ask a group of third grade kids what they want to play at recess and by the time you finished asking they have changed their mind and their choice of activity as well. Consumers are the same way. 

There is no better way to overcome our love affair with data than to balance it with a creative and innovative mindset to allow real world results to flourish. Unfortunately, most of us spend all day behind a computer studying the trends, data and analytics that promise to be so amazing and helpful, yet in reality fall short each time. Using the three skills above is a practice, and in that practice you will see the implementation of data becoming far more meaningful and useful in real world applications.