doug smith training

Don't we all just love information? We love to stay informed. We need to keep up. We believe that our people and our customers need the same. But is there such a thing as too much?  How many emails do you get each day that you never read? How many reports do you just scan or skip over entirely? Yes, we need to keep up. Yes, we need the data. Too much information ends up about as useful as too little information. High performance leaders find the balance.  -- doug smith  

Some leaders like to say that they rely on their gut instincts. "I'll just know when it's right," they'll say. Experience can tell us that we know what we're doing because of how we feel. How we feel, though, might not be our best guide. If gut instincts are right, they are right about remembering a similar circumstance and what you decided. It's worth asking "is this circumstance really the same?" and "how sure am I about this?" and most importantly, "am I really listening to intuition or is it something else -- like a hidden bias?" One company I've worked with had a phrase to rely on: "show me the data." What do the facts say? What are we missing? Is the information we are relying on reliable? Does it say what we think it says? Unless you are deciding what to eat, you probably should not rely on your gut. Find the facts. Test your instincts. Interrogate your assumptions. If it's important why not be sure? -...

Facts matter. We should pay attention to data. And, we should remember that data isn't the whole game. Data is a poor indicator of feelings.  Feelings matter. People will believe that they matter when leaders show them that their feelings matter. That's not always easy and it can even be counter-intuitive if you're an analytical sort like me, but it is necessary. Facts matter. Feelings matter. And, more often than we might care to admit, people decide based on how they feel. How do you feel about that? -- doug smith 

Have you ever noticed that a business you are dealing with suddenly offers a better deal to NEW customers than what you already have? How does that make you feel? Big data has produced so much specific stratification in our customer worlds that it is now possible to only give our best to those customers who are most profitable. It is possible to overlook those customers who have been loyal (and have gotten us to where we are) in favor of recruiting new customers. It is possible to treat different classes of customers differently. Does that feel intuitively right to you? What if you're a member of a class that's treated with lower quality than another? Chances are, that IS happening to you in one transaction or another. Do we really want to keep building a society where those who pay more are treated better? What about offering everyone our constant best? That doesn't mean that we stop using data to identify our best opportunities or serve our best customers exquis...