With so many analytics articles focusing on the technology, it is easy to get caught up thinking that analytics is about data and futurising. But really, analytics is about perspectives. It’s about looking at facts in different ways.
We all come to a situation with different experiences, and filters that mould our perspectives around a set of facts. This results in each of us viewing the same set of data in different ways. This is the critical differentiator between intelligence and insight. Insight adds that contextual element to define the perspective through which we need to view facts to make a specific decision for a specific reason.
Clarifying Perspectives
Our experiences set our expectations and cloud our view of reality. What analytics does is provide us with new perspectives, new ways of looking at reality. And this perspective is in the context of the question you are seeking to answer. For instance, what are the opportunities in the market based on our current capability; what improvements do we need to make to take full advantage of an opportunity, or overcome a challenge?
Analytics helps us see things we might not perceive based on our subjective vision. It changes our thought processes. However, to use analytics effectively in decision making we need to ‘speak analytics’; by understanding the language of analytics and how to interpret data. We need to understand the limitations of analytics and accept that prescriptive analytics is not a crystal ball – it merely shows us possibilities with a probability attached. It doesn’t provide absolutes.
To understand analytics, we also need to understand data – how and where it is sourced, how it is transformed and how we are using it to support the decisions we are attempting to make.
Perspectives Shape Reality
In current management decision models, executives come to the table each with their own perspectives – shaped by their own learning paths and experiences. These filters all resolve situations in different ways, which can lead to quite heated debate. Debate is healthy if it progresses our understanding of a situation, and moves us toward a productive outcome. However, debate is often more about personal egos and agendas – which often resolve into a blame game of who ‘should’ have done this or that. It becomes about who is right or wrong, instead of what is real, and what is not, and how we determine that. Reality is what data provides us. When we get stuck in ego debates we fail to take the time to get curious about the situation – this is where analysis and sensemaking are critical parts of the decision process.
Curiosity Drives Insight
Get curious about the facts, the data, the process, and what is underneath the information being presented. When we get too invested in our own viewpoint we block down the opportunity of learning from others. This is precisely where the emotional intelligence side of insight comes into play. EQ needs to pair up with BI to create a balanced view of the scenario we are facing.
Introducing evidence-based insight into our decision making requires an EQ sufficient to be open to other perspectives, and to be willing to accept what the data is telling us. EQ helps us avoid getting locked into making decisions on experience, on gut instinct alone. Whilst instinct has an important role to play in the decision-making process, it is not the first step; it doesn’t trump evidence. Instinct is not the process, it is an important messenger, but for some, it becomes an ego-driven attitude.
Some cognitive behavioural experts claim that we shouldn’t make choices based on the ‘what-ifs’ and ‘shoulds’, claiming that they lead us into getting caught up in fantasy. Yet in business, constantly questioning possibilities and accepting accountabilities is a big part of our role in innovation and productivity.
Analytics helps us to quantify and guide our what-ifs, through prescriptive simulation building. It can also reveal to us what we should be focusing on operationally to meet our strategic objectives and the what-ifs.
Tune into Mind Games
So, what I am getting at is that there are a lot of mind games going on when we are making decisions. Some we are aware of, some we are not. Some we create within ourselves, and some are created within the dynamics of a group. What will really help us is to understand the role of analytics to ensure these natural tendencies are carried out in a productive way, and not in a destructive way.
Start By Accepting Reality
The first part of making effective decisions is accepting reality – and that is the first role that fact-based analytics plays. Once we accept reality, and get a very clear view of it, we can bring in our emotions as a resource. To be able to do this, we need to be aware of our emotions around different situations, and get curious as to why we are feeling what we are feeling. We also need to ‘notice’ our emotions at a manageable level, not making them larger than life so that they hijack our power over a situation; nor do we want to push them away to miss the important information they seek to inform us of.
Leverage Emotions
When we let our emotions get too big, they impact they way we perceive things – they filter what we see and hear. We lose access to valuable information. They distort reality. Emotions contain information, but not necessarily fact. That’s the difference between machine analysis and human reasoning. Emotions are signals that we need to ask ourselves a question. For example:
Fear suggests we are in danger – so we need to ask ourselves what this danger is, and is it real. Am I really in danger, or do I just feel anxious because I don’t know enough about the situation to move forward confidently.
Guilt is most often associated with having made a mistake – it is not a reality that you have made a mistake, but it proposes the question to consider whether you have.
Anger is a signal that one of your personal boundaries has been crossed – we set these boundaries based on our personal values. Yet with EQ we learn that values are highly subjective – and to determine whether someone has intentionally tried to harm us, or devalue us, we need to understand their values, that drove them to that action. With so many cultures attempting to work together, there are many misunderstandings – often a person genuinely has no understanding that you may be insulted or disrespected by their comments or actions. Even Stephen Covey in his highly effective habits suggest that we first seek to understand others before expecting to be understood.
Anger is a tremendous opportunity to learn not just about the value of others, but to question the basis and validity of your own values – often they are imposed on us by others, or are outdated. Personal growth is very values-based for this very reason.
Emotions lead us to some of the most powerful questions that guide us in making our most important decisions. It is unfortunate that ‘emotions’ have been used to label who a person is, rather than accepting them as just what we feel. When we start using emotions as labels, we shut down a whole field of possibilities.
Often when we are making important decisions, they relate to a particular event. Consider for a moment that you might feel anxious when thinking about this event. It is not the event itself that makes us anxious, it is our confidence in our ability to deal with that event that leads to anxiety. This signals to us that we need more skill or information – and we don’t always have to possess those ourselves. Business is a team sport – it merely indicates that you need to seek help from those who do possess these attributes. It can also signal that we need to build our own self-confidence, and the Insight Mastery EQ Leadership course teaches you how to do this throughout the day.
So we need to learn to firstly, recognise an emotion, and then sit with it enough to determine what is underneath that emotion – what message it is trying to impart to you. Learning to be mindful of emotions is one of the fastest and most powerful ways to develop not just ability in a business role, but also as a person.
EQ & Analytics – Perfect Partners
In the fast-paced, constantly changing environment we are operating our businesses in today, we need to become comfortable with anxiety – it is a great cue card as to what we need to gain or learn to continue to keep up with the game. Don’t let anxiety control your thoughts or crumble your confidence. Accept that it is part of keeping moving forward, preventing you from stagnating and getting left behind.
In fact, I would go as far to say, that unless you are experiencing anxiety on a regular basis, you are not accepting the reality of the world today and keeping up with it. It shows you are constantly pushing to break through barriers, and growing.
This constant challenge to ourselves and businesses means we do need a much higher understanding of ourselves and our emotions, we need a higher understanding of how to read reality. And that is why EQ and Analytics make perfect partners
