Let’s keep our humanity, despite this data craze

Once upon a time, decisions were made without data. People would reflect on what decision would be best and think through by tapping into the wisdom of the more experienced people before them.

While you may think this is still a form of obtaining data, the difference is that the human factor is still present in this approach. This wisdom- giver would not only share with you information based on their past experience, but would give you the impact of those decisions from a softer angle, making sure that you indeed had a holistic view- point and approach to how their experience was.

But how many data points can you possibly gather speaking to people using that approach? How many people will you have to speak to for a truly representative sample that is sufficient to make decisions?

I believe given the extent to which we are completely tuning out our humanity and relying on data 100 percent for all our decision making, it is a better approach.

Data is only one perspective, but we are clutching on to it so strongly and forgetting about the other aspects that are so powerful in giving us information. The most critical of it being people!

Think back to a time when you needed to make a very important decision. Did you have a discussion with your team around this decision? If you did have a discussion, did you keep referencing the data and as a result biased them and restrained their creativity and problem solving? You are thinking to yourself that you didn’t need to do that because you had all the data you needed to make the decision right?

If that is your approach, I think you may be doing yourself an injustice. Not only are you underutilising your team, but you are also forgetting that the context in which that data was gathered was completely different.

What were the environmental factors that were in place when that data was gathered? What kind of people were on that team and what was the general economic climate? If you are using internal data, what were the unique factors then that may not apply now?

All this is forgotten as we focus on achieving strong positive business impact in the shortest possible time by analysing the data and replicating the decisions that led to success, forgetting that data always comes from the past. How many brains do you have in the room and have you utilised them?

Tap into them and hear what their thoughts are before sharing the data that will bias them towards thinking in a particular way. I think exclusive use of data actually hinders innovation. It boxes your thinking and you forget that there are so many other variables that were in place that were different from your current environment.