I always question this when executives in a company simply treat people like a number and then attempt to make decisions just solely on what numbers tell them. In this case, it seemed like there was a person that tried to tie the success of his sales team to certain courses that they took. Therefore, by analyzing the data it should mean if you make everyone else take that course then they should experience the same success, correct? The funny thing here though was how that course which some of his top performers took was actually completely unrelated. Imagine looking at the data on how one group of people take public transit to work where it seems like there are a lot of top performers there and so you then try and get everyone to take public transit.
Like there, I am sure most people would immediately think that is a crazy thing to do but many times that is how people think when they just base things on raw data with no real context. That’s why I usually get worried when people tell me they just base decisions on the numbers as they never lie. They may not lie, but it can be misleading if it isn’t looked at with all the other factors surrounding it.
If anything, raw data should just be a very important part in making decisions versus being the only factor. You are dealing with real people too as they say.