I love facts and data. They help ensure that I am thinking objectively and drive sound decision making. Despite that, I would not lay down my life for an argument that was solely based upon them. People don’t rally around facts and data. They rally around purpose and meaning. In other words, they rally around being part of a compelling story.

The other day I was wondering what would have happened if the Founding Fathers succumbed to the pressure of conveying their ideas in a “data driven” way. Consider this passage from the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

I think that it might have wound up sounding something like this:

A recent survey on equality among men shows that over 97% (margin of error +/- 2%) of men believe that they are created equal. Additionally, studies conducted by the Center for the Advancement of Unalienable Rights (CAUR) found that the three rights to which most people believe they are entitle are: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Best practices in public sector governance have found that Governments that derive their power from those that they govern, are in fact, 45% more like to succeed. 92% of governments* that do not adhere to this principle are often overrun by those that they govern – without those people feeling any remorse. In fact, 87% of people surveyed strongly agreed or agreed with the statement, “It is the right of the people to alter or to abolish their government if that government becomes destructive to their rights of life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness”. Governments that embrace their people and enable these rights have a higher growth rate, greater economic and civil development, lower infant mortality, and greater year over year GDP growth. Based on this, we believe that it is necessary to severe ties with the government of England.”

*The study did not include extreme totalitarian regimes as they were unable to secure accurate data.

I obviously don’t have any hard data on this, but I have a feeling that had the Founding Fathers laid out the fact-based case for splitting from England, things would look a lot different today.

There is no question that data has an important role to play in business. Use data to make decisions and drive actions. But use your mind, your heart, your vision and a story to bring others along.