Part 9 (1/2)

The er looked uncomfortable

The ee? If you want, I won't take any cases frohest probleo unresolved Your call You're the boss”

Needless (but fun) to say, the boss never bothered hiain And luckily for all involved, the boss did not reer

The only proper initial response to ate

Earlier, I offered the view that ivethat they are facts This is dangerous when leadershi+p decides to ”drive” decisions with ives metrics more power than they deserve When we elevatedecisions and taking actions based on information that may easily be less than 100 percent accurate

Metrics are not facts They are indicators

When we give metrics some undeserved lofty status (as truth instead of indicators) we encourage our organization to ”chase the data” rather than work toward the underlying root question the ned to answer We send a totally clear and equally wrong e to our staff that theto influence behavior with nuraphs

The simplest example may be in custo a focus group interview has to be taken with a grain of salt And e look at truly objective data, there is always roo tools can have defects and produce faulty data

Most tiood custoate when you see data that doesn't rees too readily with your hunch

One of the est is that it tells a complete story in answer to a root question If you've built it well, chances are, it's accurate and coet to the truth But, I know from experience, no matter how hard I try there is always room for error and ation won't hurt-and it

Since there is the possibility of variance and error in any collectionthe total validity of any measure If you don't have a healthy skepticis path as often as not Let's say the check-engine light in your car comes on Let's also say that the car is new Even if we know that the light is ato conclusions My favorite visits to the ine light and they deterht

Perhaps you are thinking that the fuel-level indicator would be a better exae reads near eht accoh level of confidence that you need gas But the gas gauge is still only an indicator Perhaps it's a ht, but it's still only an indicator Besides the variance involved (I noticed that when on a hill the gauge goes frohth of a tank!), there is still the possibility of a stuck or broken gauge

I understand if you choose to believe the gas gauge, the therleat metrics, which are made up of multiple data, measures, and information, I hope you do so with a healthy dose of hu of theto conclusions or decisions based solely on indicators (metrics)

Metrics are a tool, an indicator-they are not the answer and may have multiple interpretations

I've heard (too often for my taste) that metrics should ”drive” decisions I much prefer the attitude and belief that metrics should ”inform” decisions

Accurate Metrics Are Still Si aside the possibility of erroneous data, there are i too much trust in metrics

Let's look at an exaue Baseball I like to use baseball because of all the major sports, baseball is easily the most statistically focused Fans, writers, announcers, and players alike use statistics to discuss Aame

To be in the National Baseball Hall of Fame is, in many ways, the pinnacle of a player's career Let's look at one of the greatest player's statistics In 2011, I was able to witness Derek Jeter's 3,000th hit (a home run), one of the accomplishments a player can achieve to essentially assure his position in the Hall of Fame (Jeter was only the 28th player of all time to achieve this) The question was immediately raised-could Jeter become the all-time leader in hits? The present all-time leader had 4,256 hits! Personally, I don't think Jeter will make it

The all-time hits leader was also voted as an All-Star 17 times in a 23-year career-at an unheard of five different positions He won three World Series chaue Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, and also a World Series MVP award He also won Rookie of the Year and the Lou Gehrig Meue Baseball's All-Century Tea to one online source, his MLB records are as follows: Most hits Most outs Most gales Most runs by a switch hitter Most doubles by a switch hitter Most walks by a switch hitter Most total bases by a switch hitter Most seasons with 200 or more hits Most consecutive seasons with 100 or more hits

Most consecutive seasons with 600 at bats

Only player to play ames at each of five different positions

This baseball player holds a few other world records, as well as nuue records that include most runs and doubles

In every list I could find, he was ranked in the top 50 of all-ti News ranked him as the 25th and The Society for American Baseball Research placed him at 48th

So, based on all of this objective, critically checked data, it should be easily understood why this professional baseball player was unanimously elected to the National Baseball Hall of Faible for

But he wasn't elected

His name is Pete Rose He is not in the Baseball Hall of Faet there If you look at all of the statistical data that the voters for the Hall use, his selection is a no-brainer But the statistics, while telling a complete story, lacks the input that was taken into account-specifically that he broke one of baseball's not-to-be-breached rules: he legally and illegally gaa ”facts” that Pete Rose should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame, the truth is in direct contrast to the data

Even if we look at well-defined metrics that tell a full story, they are only indicators in the truest sense If you fully and clearly explain the results of your investigation, you co of the indicator You explain what the metrics indicate so that better decisions can be ress deter an interpretation-hopefully one backed by the results of your investigation

No matter how you decorate it, metrics are only indicators and as such should elicit only one initial response: to investigate

Of course, soh that you will accept their story without as e on your car), but even in these instances, you should keep a watchful eye in case they start to show you data that you believe isor erroneous

At the end of the day, even if you have total confidence in the accuracy of the data (pro-sports statistics, for example), you have to treat it all as indicators Data can't predict the future If it could, then there would be no reason to play the games!

The point is that metrics should not be seen as facts but rather as indicators of current and past conditions Used properly, metrics should lead our conversations, help us to focus, and draw our attention in the right direction Metrics don't provide the answers; they help us ask the right questions and take the right actions

Indicators: Qualitative vs Quantitative Data

The simple difference between qualitative and quantitative data is that qualitative data is made up of opinions and quantitative data is made up of objective numbers Qualitative data is more readily accepted to be an indicator, while quantitative data is more likely to be ation necessary Let's look at these two ories of indicators

Qualitative Data