Do You Trust the Data?
From the An Influential Project Manager Blog
by Colin Gautrey
Today, more than ever, a project manager needs to be an influencer.
The purpose of this blog is to stimulate your journey towards greater influence. With influence, you can overcome the roadblocks thrown in your way, overcome opposition, align stakeholders and, enjoy your role even more.
However, since I know you are busy, the posts here will be short (about a minute), thought provoking and also drive you towards action.
Feel free to connect with me, ask me questions, and share what's good here.
Recent Posts
Kindness
Becoming Streetwise
Shooting in the Dark
Three Reasons Why You Can't Handle the Politics
Passed Over for Promotion?
Categories
impact,
influence,
power,
Stakeholder Management,
stakeholder management
Date
Virtually all data presented today is biased towards the presenter’s agenda.
This bias manifests in selective data, convenient data contexts, opinion masquerading as data and narrative delivered as objective fact.
Which is a major problem when you need to make a decision based on that data.
Helping people make good decisions is the central thrust of ethical influence, and biased data does not qualify as ethical influence in my book.
While the intent may be pure, the method is anything but.
Why?
Because if people agree with the agenda of the presenter, they are doing so with incomplete information, and that is certainly not the way I wish to be influenced. I want to be helped to make a the right decision, but I will not be hoodwinked into it.
What do you think?
More on this Topic
Review the latest content on the Influence Blog.
Let's Connect
It is always good to connect, so feel free to reach out to me either here on the Project Management website or on LinkedIn. See you soon!
Posted on: November 20, 2020 04:12 AM |
Permalink
Comments (8)
Please login or join to subscribe to this item
I agree with you that every Presenter will have certain bias throughout the data lifecycle. This is because every Presenter's perspective is unique.
But I also want to add here, that it is up to the Consumer of the presentation to be able to derive insights from the Presenter and review them independently before arriving at any decision. This requires a certain amount of maturity and comes with experience, though not to all :)
Kwiyuh Michael Wepngong
Community Champion
Financial Management Specialist | US Peace Corps
Yaounde, Centre, Cameroon
That's the sad reality. Biased data just to score a point against every ethical value
Luis Branco
CEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, Ldª
Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Dear Colin Gautrey
Very interesting this topic
This moment is pertinent for a reflection of this nature
I am convinced that the data is used for specific purposes
Well to promote ethical influence the presenter should curb, cleanse the data & try to stick to the facts rather than opinions by following standard practices.
Also, it’s the responsibility of the audience to verify & cross check the information being presented.
#saaa
Manish Baheti
Director of PM/PMO| Oracle Financial Services Software Ltd
Melbourne, Vic, Australia
Colin Gautrey
Author, Executive Coach and Trainer| The Gautrey Group
United Kingdom
Thank you for your comments. I like the idea about distinguishing facts from opinions (most opinions are presented as facts in order to influence). Also the recognition that the audience needs to hold responsibility for assessing/verifying. Such an important topic for people to be aware of.
Please Login/Register to leave a comment.
|
"When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear."
- Mark Twain
|
