The ever increasing rate of change in our world,
over the past few decades, has resulted in the challenges we face, becoming
more and more complex. There is a constant barrage of data and information,
through which we need to sort, before we can even begin making any decisions.
These constant, accelerating changes, the vast amount of information and the
complexities we face every day, has also resulted in much larger interdependencies
amongst those impacted by any decision we make. All of these factors have added
up and have made decision making far more difficult and complex for leaders.
The vast amount of data available and the
tools, which can be used to help leaders shift through and analyse the data
overwhelm, has seen leaders respond to these new complexities, by placing a far
greater focus on analytics and data driven decision making. Leaders are
becoming far more dependent on vast amounts of data to make decisions and are
losing the confidence to listen to their internal voice of experience. They
have turned down the volume on their leadership intuition and instead have
learnt to trust the data to guide them, when making decisions.
I have observed a definite trend, in all the
leaders, at the businesses where I consult. They have all moved toward an
increased need for data and tools to analyse this data. Yet, despite, this
increased attention, massively increased volume of data and tools to analyse
and interpret the data, the decisions made by all these leaders does not always
improve. I accept that the rapid rate of change, the complexities we face and
the interdependencies amongst those impacted by every decision, makes data and
analytical tools crucial to any leader. The challenge is that the leaders I
have observed rely completely on the data, to guide them to make decisions.
The data and tools for analysing the data are
only support mechanisms for any leader and are by no means enough on their own.
The data and analytics only support the leader to make any decision and are by
no means enough on their own. If any leader is to excel in their role as a
leader and to ensure that the decisions they make are valid and in the best
interest of all stakeholders. They must ensure that they trust their insight,
experience and ability to effectively interpret all the data they receive. The
reason many leaders fail to make credible decisions, is because they rely
almost exclusively on the data they have analysed and they do not listen to
their inner voice of experience, insight and foresight.
The second challenge I have observed in the
leaders I have consulted with over the past few years, is that they are relying
on analytical tools and techniques, which are outdated. If leaders are to begin
making credible and effective decisions going forward, I believe that it is
time to rethink how we use all the data, which is all around us and that
leaders need learn to trust themselves, where they use their innate leadership
intuition to analyse and more effectively utilise the data. This is best
achieved when leaders commit to flex their decision making muscle, as often as
possible and they work to consistently improve their skill and ability to lead
and make decisions.
Effectively analysing and Utilising Data to
Make Decisions
It is most certainly time to rethink how we utilise, analyse and
interpret the massive amount of data all around us. The analytical tools and
techniques employed by most of the leaders I have observed, were designed for a
much simpler world. The rapid rate of change and the ever increasing amount of
data, which is available, has seen these tools become ineffective and outdated.
This means that leaders are making decisions, with flawed information. As they have
begun to rely exclusively on the analysed data and have turned down the volume
on their own leadership intuition and foresight, they often make ineffectual
decisions, which have a negative impact on their businesses. Leaders are also
allowing themselves to become overwhelmed with data overload.
Understanding How Your
Brain Manages Data
Your brain is
designed to work hard to map what it currently sees or observes, to what it
already knows. To do this when it is overwhelmed with a vast amount of data
overload, it must distort, ignore and sub optimise data. This system of
comparing everything to what you already know was a very effective system forty
thousand years ago, when our brains were evolving to their current structure.
Back then things were pretty static and everything in our world changed really
slowly. Therefore the brains ability to link all the new things it encountered
to the old things it had already experienced, if not always accurate, provided
our species with a survival advantage.
The challenge
we face today is that we live in a vastly differently world, than we inhabited
forty thousand years ago. Things are changing so rapidly in our world today,
the business cycle is getting shorter and shorter, companies are developing
products with an expected life cycle of only six months, completely new
products, which did not even exist are created every thirty seconds today. This
rate of change is not showing signs of slowing down either. The rate of change
is accelerating at an ever increasing pace.
All of this
means that your brain is completely overwhelmed with new data and input
information, resulting in your brain kicking into a higher gear, where you
distort, ignore and sub-optimise the entire data overload at an ever increasing
rate. All the graphs, charts and reports become overwhelming and as such your brain
will filter as much of the information as possible. This entire process happens
subconsciously and so the more irrelevant data you try to utilise and analyse to
make decisions, the more likely it is that your brain will filter the
information and the less likely you are to see any problem data areas.
The secret to
making effective decisions is to limit the data overwhelm and to ensure that
all the data you utilise to guide you when making any decisions, is correctly analysed
and processed before you even see it. It is also crucial that you turn the volume
up on your own leadership intuition and that you once again learn to trust your
experience and follow your gut feel. Flex your decision making muscle as often
as possible. Become decisive and trust yourself. Too much analysis and data
overwhelm, will often result in paralysis and ultimately poor decisions.
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