And now The Mentalist shares his wisdom...

“Long before we stuffed knowledge into graphs and charts, we used older, and in some cases more entertaining ways to remember things.  Grids, Lists and Classification is a nice way of organizing things.  But it is not the way the world works; and it is certainly not the way the brain works.” ~ Patrick Jane in “The Mentalist”

Predictive Analytics and Big Data are the buzz words making the rounds today, as organizations – especially online organizations try to get better at predicting customer tastes and preferences.  The entire supply-chain then bends backwards trying to fulfil the prophecy, and works overtime making and stocking the shelves with what has been forecast.  In an earlier post, I had mentioned about the over-dependence on data – grids, lists, charts and graphs – the elusive hunt for that pattern which reveals how a whole host of people are thinking or what is influencing their purchase decisions.  No doubt, all of this is very useful. Today, the ability to collect, collate and analyse data from so many different sources has gotten better.  However, I suspect the ability to interpret this in a meaningful manner – has somewhat diminished – decision makers are trying to replace the critical element of personal knowledge, emanating from skills and experience with mechanically interpreted data.

So, I am drawn into wondering how personal knowledge that emanates from skill and experience can coexist with the interpretations and conclusions that we draw from charts and graphs.  Do they predict the same thing – or are they too many variables for either of them to be reasonably accurate.  More importantly, how can the two work together to improve the ratio of successful predictions.  Like the apocryphal story about the old worker who charges $100 to fix a boiler by tapping it with a  hammer (read that here) where personal knowledge is shown as being extremely important, to the other story about Wal-Mart placing diapers next to beer because sales patterns revealed increase in sales (read it here) where analytics is shown to be the hero – we are left wondering where the twain can meet.

Personal knowledge – that intricate mix of learning, practice, sharing and experiencing – is what goes into creating organizational knowledge.  The ability of the expert to share that knowledge in a vivid and memorable manner enables the organization to embed that knowledge – institutionalize it.  In a similar manner, when patterns emerge from the way the organization interacts with its ecosystem, the ability to identify it, and make it available to the expert to create another memorable story is what analytical tools should become good at.  A picture is worth a thousand words – they say; with data visualization getting better by the day, it should be possible to create memorable images that then become stories that get embedded as part of organization’s knowledge. 

Have you come across any graphs or charts that have helped you change the way you work?