What are you optimizing for?

Pre-s: Free LinkedIn live stream this Wednesday at 1 pm ET.

High Performing Data Teams: Agile Frameworks and Behaviors

Join us!

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Decision-making is fundamental to business and organizational leadership.

The mantra in the data industry is “data-driven decisions”. But that statement gets simplified down to adages like “follow the data” and “make the best choice”.

The problem? You don’t know what you are optimizing for. And when you don’t know the end goal, following the data leads nowhere and the best choice is impossible to find.

Every decision requires multiple options. Each option has some likelihood of reaching an outcome. Quality decisions usually weigh how likely something is to happen with how desirable the result is.

Here’s what your decisions could look like:

• Option 1: High likelihood of Result A.

• Option 2: Low likelihood of Result B.

• Option 3: Moderate likelihood of Result C.

So which one should you pick?

I have no idea. Because even when you have perfect knowledge of the likelihood of each result, you can’t decide without knowing which result you want to optimize for.

This is why decision-making always starts with outcomes.

Data can help you measure the likelihood of certain results. It can help you quantify the value of each result in neutral terms.

But data can’t tell you which result you should want. That’s the work of humans.

You can be as data-driven as you want, but you will always be dependent on the human factor.

Why does this matter to you?

Your frustrations with data, priorities, leadership, and progress are related to your clarity about outcomes. Your decision-making frameworks fall flat if you don’t know what you want.

I’m doing a 1-day workshop to help you build a High-Performing Data Team. It’s on November 12th for 4 hours. We begin our time focusing on defining the desired outcomes and end our time on decision-making frameworks.

Join me.

I’m here,

Sawyer