Recently someone pushed back on my suggestion to show fewer numbers in the body of his presentation (I recommend putting most of the charts, graphs, and tables in the appendix and pull them out when needed). He questioned why people would believe his conclusions if they didn’t first see the numbers upon which those conclusions are based.
This is a common concern. We’ve come to believe that seeing the number is an important part of the process of being data driven. But, is it really? Think about the question in reverse. Why wouldn’t someone believe you without seeing the numbers? To me, the need see every number reflects some dysfunction in the organization.
Having to show the numbers to “prove” that your statement about them is correct generally stems from one of two types of leadership issues:
They don’t trust you
They don’t think you are capable of interpreting the numbers correctly
They believe that you will not report the data honestly
They want to make sure that you actually have data to back up your claims
They don’t trust themselves
They don’t really understand the business issue so they want to talk about the numbers (since focusing on the numbers require little to no understanding of the business)
They don’t know what they are really trying to figure out so they keep the conversation focused on the data rather than the decisions and actions associated with that data
Why ask someone who you believe is not capable or honest to present in the first place? Similarly, why ask if you aren’t qualified to use the data to make a decision, why are they presenting to you?
In fairness, some leaders say that they want to see the numbers to see if they come to the same conclusion (decision) as the person presenting. That’s a reasonable objective. However, looking at the data is not the way to do it.
There is a difference between stating a fact based on data and a drawing a conclusion. A fact is a summary of the data. A fact may be that sales are increasing or that your “Happy Family” brand is losing market share. Do you really believe that the person presenting couldn’t interpret an upward trending graph? Or, do you just think that he or she is lying to you? If you need to see the data to verify the statement of fact based on that data, you probably have one of the problems listed above.
Conclusions are different than facts. They are based on interpretation of data rather than simple reporting data. Conclusions are based upon criteria and rules. For example, suppose that you are trying to figure out where to spend your marketing budget. You may conclude that your marketing budget is best spent in markets that 1) are growing, 2) have low market share, and 3) have high-performing sales leaders. Those are the criteria. Therefore, you need to figure out which markets meet those various criteria. That’s where the data come in.
If you are spending your meeting time having people show you data to prove that their statements about growth, market share and sales leaders are true, you aren’t going to get to the discussion of how various markets perform on each of those criteria. You also won’t get to debate what to do if some markets met certain criteria but other markets met different criteria. That’s where the real decision takes place. That’s where there is room for interpretation and disagreement (perhaps you weigh the criteria differently than your team). That’s where your focus should be as a leader. Getting the criteria right and interpreting it right is what drives good decision making. Figuring out whether something is going up or down, is bad or good, or is high or low, is pretty trivial. If you don’t think your people can do that get different people.
I often hear leaders complain that meetings take too long and are not productive. Perhaps that’s because we are spending more time auditing and verifying data than using it to make decisions.
I’m not suggesting that we do away with all data in presentations and just take people’s word for it. A good presentation uses data strategically. However, being data-driven means that any claim made in a presentation can be BACKED UP with data. Backing up a claim with data is not the same as proactively showing every piece of data associated with that claim.
A leader’s role is to provide the due diligence to ensure that the analysis and recommendations are sound. Hire people who you know will get the data part right most of the time. Then, engage in a business discussion about the conclusions and recommendations. You’ll still uncover the mistakes and misinterpretations; you’ll just do it a lot more efficiently and effectively.
