The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Analytics
…But also The Better and The Best
Often when popular media inspire an article, I put it in Creative Analytics. Those articles are lighter and more inspirational. This one is a bit deeper, if only in that it calls out something far too many people lose sight of. In other words — the movie is a hook. The lesson is more critical.
Let’s Start With The Ugly
Don’t feel too bad for Eli Wallach. He was an actor after all and lived to the nice old age of 98.
Don’t feel bad for The Ugly of analytics either. These folks are strong believers that statistics will prove anything you want. They agree with there be lies, damn lies, and statistics. They are also positive Mark Twain said it… he didn’t. They also know that if you torture the data long enough, it will tell you whatever you want to hear. They are actors, much the same as Eli.
The Bad…
We can perhaps be more sympathetic for the bad. Not in the movie. They had it coming. I am referring to the bad in analytics.
The bad, in analytics, lack discipline. They think a Coursera course, a certification, or a bootcamp diploma is enough to teach them how to do analytics. It is incredibly naive, but it is a never ending sales pitch from so many voices … well, you just might give them a little leniency.
They lack discipline. They are crushed by logical fallacies. They are suckered in by cognitive bias. But unlike The Ugly, who exploit these things to tell the story they want, The Bad don’t even notice they did it. Or maybe they just don’t know how to avoid it.
The Good Aren’t Angels.
The movie gives a little more here. The Good in westerns are dirty, gritty, hard-staring types. The analytic world is no different.
Discipline is hard work. It involves getting your hands dirty. It is about recognizing principles of right and wrong. It often requires a hard stare and a willingness to embrace imperfection. In analytics, being good requires a fight.
The Better?
Yes, we have left the movie behind. Discipline makes for a good analyst. It is a commitment to “How” to do things. Discipline is a process. How to think about things, alternately, is an organizational principle. Organizational principles create great guide posts and make communication easier. I use it to simplify the analytic process (TAP) with my IPODS framework.
The Better are stronger communicators and better innovators because they don’t just have discipline, they also understand the core principles it is based on. Why are they better innovators? Because discipline is knowing how to do things a specific way. Principle thinking and structure provides a greater level of freedom to consider things in varied ways — while still bulwarking the discipline needed to avoid pitfalls and fallacies.
The Best
What is the best western movie? Is it The Treasure of Sierra Madre? Who knows. I don’t think I even have the credibility to answer.
What makes the best analysts? I certainly can’t claim more than a lot of discplined inspection on this front either, but I have a strong opinion.
Good analysts are right… often. Better analysts are right, clear, and creative. The Best analysts add Actionable, or impactful if you are sick of the former. Actionable requires an understanding of Feedback, imho.
Feedback is critical to learning. Analytics is the science of learning. Feedback is critical to action, change, and control. An analyst who can grasp the levers of feedback in their business, their science, their discipline — will be the best. They will need to understand both negative and positive loops. They will need to see that feedback is captured in the data, that it is processed in their systems, and that it is actioned through their efforts.
Or at least that is my best thought on the subject… Feel free to leave your’s in the comments below. Thanks for reading. Stay safe but more importantly, stay informed.
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