Leadership and Data – A Filtered Experience

“As organizations (and societies) grow larger and more complex, the people at the top (whether managers or analysts) depend less and less on firsthand experience, more and more on heavily “processed” data. Before reaching them, the raw data – what actually goes on “out there” – have been sampled, screened, condensed, compiled, coded, expressed in statistical form, spun into generalizations and crystallized into recommendations.” – John W. Gardner in Self Renewal: The Individual and the Innovative Society

It is a characteristic of information processing systems that they systematically filter out certain kinds of data so that these nuances of data never reach the ones who depend on the system…

Agile is all about transparency.

I would, and we constantly suggest to our clients, that we do our very utmost to give unfiltered views of how things are going with development, all facets of development.

This way, leadership can make the best informed decisions they can about what is really happening!

Consider what “filtered” information you’re giving to leadership. Consider how that could be doing more harm than good.

Data is only as valuable as it is “real.”