Have you noticed? There's always a moment in a meeting when someone ends up saying: what are the figures? The collective reflex has become automatic, as if the data alone would resolve our doubts. We measure, compare and line up curves, yet the more figures we produce, the further away the decision seems to be.

The reassuring power of data

Data is clean, neutral and factual, or so it seems. In organisations, data often plays the role of a collective comforter. It calms tensions and soothes debates. But what about intuition in the age of data? All too often it is silenced: «We'll see what the figures say... we'll wait for the next report... we'll decide when we have more data.»
As a result, we're no longer making decisions, we're waiting. We pile up analyses, multiply studies and postpone decisions. After all, isn't a figure more comfortable than making a choice?

When measuring becomes an escape route

It's no coincidence that the “data culture” is taking hold everywhere: it has a magical quality. It makes you think you're making progress, even when you're going round in circles. Every project has its dashboard, every initiative its indicators. When something doesn't work, you don't question it: you change the KPI. We end up confusing the activity of measuring with the action of transforming: as if observing the weather were enough to change the climate. In some teams, data even becomes a form of religion. It's consulted before taking action, invoked when in doubt, quoted to protect oneself. It's no longer used to understand: it's used to justify.

A return to common sense in decision-making

Data is not the problem, it's what we do with it, or rather, what we no longer do with it. A good indicator should not replace human judgement. It must feed it, question it, sometimes contradict it, but never paralyse it. The courage to decide cannot be measured. It can be observed in the silences of a meeting, in unpopular choices, in those moments when you have to say: let's go for it, even if everything is not certain. Data is a tool, but when it becomes a refuge, it ceases to enlighten: it puts people to sleep. Data should not think for us, but all too often it reminds us that we prefer to avoid thinking.